


Of Cockroaches and Parasites

by Nanerich



Series: Ironfam [18]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Abduction, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bisexual Peter Parker, Domestic Fluff, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff and Humor, Friends With Benefits, Gay Harley Keener, Happy Ending, Harry as Green Goblin, How Do I Tag, Identity Reveal, M/M, Mario Kart Tournaments, Morgan Stark is the best little sister, Not Beta Read, One Big Happy Family, Peter in his mid-twenties, Peter works at SI, Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Slow Build, Slow Romance, So does Harley, Team as Family, We Die Like Men, a lot of fluff, and friends again, and then back to enemies, with FEELS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 46,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23843224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanerich/pseuds/Nanerich
Summary: When Tony introduces the newest member of SI, Harley Keener, Peter is not amused. Because as hard as Peter tries to get along with him, there is no way around it: Harley Keener is a class A douche that Peter would never ever get along with.No matter that he can be a little funny, is really smart and sometimes even kinda cute, Peter will never ever like him.And that is a Peter garantie.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker & Shuri, Harley Keener & Peter Parker, Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Harry Osborn & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Johnny Storm, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Series: Ironfam [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1528625
Comments: 22
Kudos: 240





	1. Chapter 1

“Peter, I love you, but you are useless”, Morgan moaned and put her pen down.

“Excuse me?” His eyebrows raised high he looked down. “I graduated top of my class from MIT.”

“Doesn't mean you're any help with my English homework.” She returned the stare and since she unfortunately was the daughter of snark-personified, Mr Tony Stark, she held it quite impressively.

“You know, I can just go and leave you to it”, Peter shot back once he was dangerously close to breaking.

“Then do it.”

“Fine. Analyse your reading by yourself.” With the fakest grin he had in him, Peter got up from the table and sprawled himself out on the couch.

“Good. Wouldn't wanna fail the assignment...”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. You know, I am Spider-Man and work in one of the most prestigious companies in the world, I don't need to listen to some little 12 year old snot-nose.”

“Phhh”, she snorted and turned back to her pen, her booklet and the copy of 'Little Women' and for a while the only sound was the turning of pages and scratching of her pen on the paper. Laying on the couch, he kept her – covertly – in his view and thanks to his spider-hearing her suppressed and almost silent swears and sighs weren't all that quiet to him any more. As much as he loved that girl, he was not going to break and go back and help her out, not until Morgan admitted she needed his help. That's a sibling's love.

“Ok fine, alright”, she groaned after a few more minutes, “please, I need your help.”

“All you have to do is ask”, he grinned as he walked over, no, in his elated pride he sauntered, almost sashayed back to where Morgan shot him the most exasperated of all eye-rolls.

The almost-siblings were even better at working together than riling each other up and in no time at all they had her homework assignment done and made themselves comfortable on the couch, their feet propped up on the coffee-table and a bag of chips between them as they just chatted.

“I just think that super-speed would be super impractical. I mean, think about all the bugs you swallow while running”, Peter shuddered.

“That's what a suit with a proper mask would be for, though”, Morgan shrugged.

“Might be, but there's nothing better than soaring through the sky.”

“Spider-Man can't soar though”, she grinned, that damn cheeky grin.

“No, you're right”, he nodded. “Tell me about your superpowers again?”

“You're an asshole, Parker.”

“Language!” His face fallen down to the ground for his darling-daughter using such language, Tony walked into the living room, having his arm around some guy. Probably around Peter's age. The Tony typical point was directed at Peter: “if this is the kind of stuff you teach her, I am no longer allowing you to be around my daughter.”

“Well, I learned that word from you, Dad”, Morgan shot back. “What kind of consequences will we have to draw from that?”

Peter joined in the cheeky glee and grinned at his mentor. “Yeah, _Dad_ , what are the consequences for such actions?”

“Damn you kids”, Tony grumbled. “As I told you, you're gonna fit in just perfectly.” Tony turned to the other guy, who awkwardly smiled at Peter and Morgan. “Harley, that's Peter, that's Morgan. Guys, that's Harley, he's starting at SI next week.”

“Potato-gun Harley?”

“Yeah, that's me”, he smiled and beamed at Tony: “aw, mechanic, you told them about me!”, for which the _mechanic_ , whatever that was about, just rolled his eyes.

“It's nice to meet you”, Peter smiled, well, forced himself to smile. Fine, he was going to admit that it was a little weird to see Tony being all that chummy with a guy Peter had heard comparatively little about, but it was fine. Really fine.

“You too. You're the intern, right?”

_I'm so much more than that_ ... “Yeah, I am”, Peter answered instead. He wasn't gonna go all animosity on the new guy, that wasn't fair to anybody. If Tony liked him so much, Harley was probably a pretty cool guy who Peter could get along with just fine and it would be absolutely uncalled for him to just dismiss him right away without even giving him a chance.

“Are you staying for dinner?”

“Yeah”, Peter nodded, “definitely beats awkwardly third-wheeling Aunt May and Happy on their date.”

“Oh, I feel you”, Morgan nodded, “there's nothing worse than Mum and Dad on date night.”

“Excuse me?”

“I'm serious”, she nodded, and Peter had to agree. Tony and Pepper were sappier than any romcom.

“Will that be all, Ms Potts?”, he cooed.

“Yes, Mr Parker, that'll be all”, Morgan mimicked them and rolled her eyes. “Seriously, one more twelve-percent-joke and I'll move in with Peter.”

“You kids are horrible”, Tony made clear, once he caught his facial features again. “I love my wife and I will show it any way I possibly can.”

“And that's wonderful”, Peter nodded, “we just don't need to be part of Pepper teasing you for the plush bunny.”

“Oh, the damn bunny”, Morgan groaned.

“Well, if things keep going like that, you two'll be disinherited before you know it.”

“Isn't it a bit early in the week for threats?”, Pepper commented as she walked inside.

“Those ungrateful little gremlins mock the fact that we love each other”, Tony explained as he – finally – let go of Harley and all but ran for his wife's embrace.

After a moment of confused silence, Pepper looked over at the couch and the two gremlins. “Context?”

“Parents on date nights are gross”, Peter summarized and she just chuckled.

“Just wait until you've found the love of your life”, she beamed and leaned against Tony's side, who looked like he could just explode any moment into an amalgamation of hearts and roses and butterflies. “You'll be just as bad.”

“I will never be like that”, Morgan gestured at her parents. “I hereby swear that I will not torture my children with ridiculous flirting.”

Prompted by her looking at Peter all expectantly, he nodded in agreement. “Sure, I swear as well that I won't be gross on date night.”

“You kids are ridiculous”, Tony just shook his head. “Is your homework done?”

“Peter helped me”, Morgan nodded.

“Good. How about you hop along and help me with dinner?”

“Sure thing.”

“And you”, Pepper turned to Harley, “can accompany me and we can finish up your paperwork just in time.”

“Sounds serious”, he grinned and, after an encouraging nod from Tony, he followed Pepper out of the living room.

Yeah, getting to know Harley was inevitable, but Peter had a feeling that this whole thing would be quite interesting.

  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


“I'm sure being Tony's _assistant_ is quite nice, isn't it?”, Harley remarked, as they happened to run into each other in the penthouse.

Peter was a professional, he was just going to be cool, play it nice. “It actually is. Coordinating the communication between SI and the Avengers” - more or less white lie - “is really nice.” Nice was an understatement, those super-weird, super-enhanced guys were like his family, really.

“That I believe...”

And here comes the awkward silence. Peter had no idea what to talk about with that guy, which was weird since they had quite a lot of overlapping topics for discussion: engineering, Tony... Well, alright, two overlapping topics. But such broad ones that awkward pauses like this shouldn't really be in the realm of possibilities. It however was and Peter was so relieved when the elevator dinged and Morgan, coming home from school, walked into the place.

“Hi Harley, hey Pete”, she greeted them and wrapped herself around Peter in greeting. “I got really hard maths homework”, she stated, looking up with those enormous puppy eyes.

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah”, she nodded, silently shooting him all the expectant looks.

“And what do I have to do with that?”, he grinned.

“Come on! Are you gonna help me or not?”

“Any time, sweetie.” And so she pulled him off to maths and away from that awkward situation.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, Tony? FRI said you're here and I... Oh. Hi.” All but skipping into the lab, Peter didn't even realize Tony wasn't working by himself, but with Harley. On Ironsuit Mark22, which Peter and Tony actually started to work on but that probably meant nothing.

“Hey kid”, Tony smiled, “everything alright?”

“Uhm, yeah”, he cleared his throat, forcing a smile.

“What's up then?”

Well, shit. Peter couldn't exactly talk about the spider-suit-update he had thought up on patrol earlier with the new guy around. And Peter had been so looking forward to get to work on that. “It's nothing too urgent”, he shrugged, forcing all the nonchalance.

“You sure?” Of course Tony knew Peter was keeping something from them, he knew him well enough for that after all.

Well, if he was the intern in Harley's book, then that was the best role for Peter to play right now. “Yeah, uhm, it's Spider-Man. He has a message for you.”

“Oh, does he?”, Tony shot back and, if you didn't know him as well as Peter did, you'd easily miss the miniature eye-roll.

“Yeah, so there's something about a suit-update he would like to discuss with you, but it's nothing urgent. When you get around to fitting it in, just give him a call.”

“I definitely will. Did he say what kind of upgrade he was thinking about?”

If Peter gave a proper speech about how he had thought about the best way to angle his web-shooters so he didn't keep on dislocating his wrist and shoulder during sharp turns and while trying to outmanoeuvre his adversaries, that would be a bit too on the nose, wouldn't it? “Something with the web-shooters”, he answered instead, keeping it vague enough so Harley wouldn't get any ideas.

“Ok, cool”, Tony nodded. “I'll call him later.”

“Right.” Ugh, this was so awkward, it'd probably be best if Peter just got out of there. “I'll let Spider-Man know.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“Of course. Right then, I'm gonna head home, May's cooking.”

“That sounds lovely”, Tony smiled. Right, he never was on the receiving end of Aunt May's cooking abilities, no wonder he sounded all sincere.

“It is, so I better be there in time, before she bites my head off”, he grinned and, after waving in the general direction of Tony and Harley, Peter turned and, once back in his suit, swung towards Queens.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Honey, I know I'm not the best cook, but you're being unusually restraint to eat any of my food. What's bothering you?”

“I don't know”, Peter shrugged, and it wasn't even a real lie. “I'm just not so sure about that new guy that started at SI, you know? He's really close with Tony, so I guess I'm a little jealous, which is so not fair, but that's what it is and it sucks and ugh”, he groaned.

“Your jealousy is valid, but what is even more important is realizing that Tony isn't pushing you away, he isn't. There is all of a sudden a third kid in his house he feels responsible for and he just wants to make sure that the new guy feels as at home there as you do. I do however have the feeling that if Tony likes the guy so much, that he's somebody you can really get along with.”

“I thought that too at first. But it's always so awkward, I have no idea what to talk about, so we just... don't.”

“Awkward silences are the worst, I know”, May nodded and reached over to grab Peter's hand. “But you maybe don't have to force a conversation so much. Just ask him about his family, about his hobbies, chat about movies, music or something like that. Just because he is close with Tony, it doesn't mean that you two are automatically bonded in some weird way and there is no need for conversation to be all profound.”

That sounded doable. “Alright”, Peter smiled, feeling a little more hopeful about the whole situation. “I'll give him a chance.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Giving Harley a chance was really tough to do. Every time Peter was over at the compound and with the Stark-family, Harley was there, too. Sure, he was new and didn't know anybody else around, so Peter more or less managed to play over it and be nice and shit, even though Tony gave Harley a lot of attention during these instances. And it wasn't like Harley made it easy for Peter to like him, he was just as hesitant towards Peter and he got the distinct feeling that Harley did not like him. That dude was just always that bit extra snide, when Tony wasn't listening or around and pretended like everything was roses and cotton candy, when  _the mechanic_ was there. Harley definitely thrived off the attention that he was getting from Tony; attention that usually was on Peter; attention, he honestly started to miss. A lot.

But the one thing, the worst thing, was his mind constantly replaying Peter walking into the lab, seeing Tony work with Harley on the project that had once been Peter's... That was the droplet breaking the dam. And Peter had honestly no idea how to deal with all these surfacing feelings. There were way too many emotions for Peter to be able to properly decipher them all. All in all it felt like Tony just needed a new mentor-project. Did he think Peter was just busy with Spider-Man and had no more time for Tony? That was the only explanation for why he'd work on Peter's project with Harley. Or maybe Tony was annoyed, or bored with Peter.

All in all it fucking sucked. As much as Peter hated jealousy, this time he was pretty sure it was justified. Peter had a right to feel upset about him being kinda shoved to the side. But then again, Tony already promised to call Peter, so they could work on his suit, and that would undoubtedly be just the two of them. No matter how sucky all this was, Peter just had to wait it out and soon enough Harley wasn't more important than Peter any more and things would all get back to normal. Or so Peter thought.

  
  


It took ten days for Tony to ring up Peter to work on that upgrade. And it wasn't like Peter had been a total stranger, he obviously still worked at SI, always checked in with Morgan after work as usual, he just didn't bother to keep on pestering Tony about the project. After all, Tony promised to call Peter once he had time for him.

Fine, Peter was being petty. So, instead of checking in on Tony in the lab after saying hi to Morgan, Peter went on patrol, hung out with his non-Avenger-friends, or spend the afternoon with May. Sure, he did all those things before as well, just not as frequent.

“Seriously, webs, you need a new hobby”, the Torch snorted, watching Peter doing another tour of flips off a skyscraper, webbing himself just in time before splatting on the ground.

“That is as good a hobby as any”, Peter shot back. “Besides, silence from the peanut gallery unless you show me what you got.”

And, just like Peter knew, Johnny was not one to let himself be taunted. “Oh, you've seen nothing yet, webhead”, he shot over before twirling around in the sky.

“Not bad.”

“Not bad?”, Johnny cried out and landed right in front of Peter. “That was a quadruple spin, followed by a triple...”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever”, Peter waved him off. “How about instead of showing off you get us dinner? It's your turn to pay.”

“Hot Dogs?”

“Sounds good to...” Peter was interrupted by his ringing phone. “Sorry, it's Tony.” Finally. “KAREN, put it through.”

“Hey.”

“Hi kid, what are you up to?”

“Just hanging with Johnny Storm. We're about to get Hot Dogs.” He gestured at Johnny, who, with an eye-roll and a scoff, jumped off the roof and flew towards the next best food cart.

“Sounds good. You wanna come by later, take a stab at that upgrade you still haven't told me anything about?”

_Well, I would have told you, if you had actually called me when you said you would._ “Like I said the other day, it's not that big a thing”, Peter answered instead. “I was just thinking it could be good to work on the flexibility of the web-shooters, you know, so I don't keep on dislocating my wrists and shoulders.”

“Excuse me, _keep on_ dislocating?”

Aw fuck, he's really done it. For the sake of his sanity, Peter has kept most of these instances to himself, unless Tony was in the general vicinity of his accidents. “That's why I want to work on the web-shooters, to keep it from happening.”

“Well I should damn well hope so. Right then, once your date with Johnny is over, get your ass to my lab, pronto.” One thing's for sure, that tone did leave no room for arguments.

“Yes sir. We gonna be by ourselves then?” Damnit, as hard as he tried, Peter couldn't keep that weird undertone out of his voice and could just pray that Tony didn't hear the jealousy or whatever ring through.

“Of course we are”, Tony made clear and he definitely got that Peter had some weird feelings about Harley. At least he didn't say anything for now, but there was probably a lot to discuss once Pete got to the compound later.

“Alright then, lunch is flying here as we speak, so I'll see you later.”

“Sure thing, kiddo. Enjoy your hot dog.”

“I will! Bye!”

“Call ended”, KAREN announced, just as Johnny landed, after a triple somersault.

“Show off”, Peter grumbled and took the only slightly charred food. “Not bad on the dogs, though. Barely on fire.”

“I am capable of learning”, he winked and flopped down next to Peter. “So, you finally gonna tell me what is going on with Daddy Stark?”

“Dude, that sounds so wrong!”, Peter shuddered.

“Don't deflect. Something's up, so 'fess up darling.”

Damnit, if there was one thing Peter knew about the Torch it was his fucking tenacity; as long as Peter didn't tell him what was up, flamebrains was not going to let him get away. “There's this new guy, Harley. And it kinda feels like I'm not really that important any more.”

“Never ever judge me for calling the tinman Daddy Stark, when you're in some sort of sibling rivalry”, Johnny made clear.

“Yeah, but it feels so much more than that? Like I just walk into the lab and Tony works with Harley on MY project. He then said he'd call me later. Well, that _later_ took him ten days. And I really tried getting to know that dude, but he's a real dick.”

“Damn.” Lost in his thought, Johnny munched on his hotdog before turning back. “Ok, you need to talk to Mr Roboto, tell him that how he treats you is bullshit. And then you walk up to that Harley-person and tell him that how he treats you is bullshit, too. And that if he has a problem with you he is very welcome to take it up with your very good pals Spider-Man and The Human Torch. How's that for a plan?”

At the thought of him and Johnny intimidating Harley to be nice to Peter, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. “Oh, Tony would so disinherit me if we did that. But sounds like a plan.”

“Good. Then off you go, sort out your interpersonal shit and, not that we've done so much of it today, but I'll take over superheroing for the afternoon.”

And so Peter swung to the compound, deciding not to give Tony a heads-up and waltzing into the workshop in his spider-attire, maybe getting to witness Tony kicking Harley out. That did not happen, Tony was by himself screwing around with a gauntlet, grinning over when Peter strutted into the lab. “There you are, great. You'll be happy to hear that I am over my consternation over the state of your every joint and I am even happier that we get to work out a way to fix that issue.”

“Yeah, me too”, Peter nodded back and, after taking a breath for composure and not blurting out everything that bothered him, he pulled off his mask. “I'll go change and then we get it sorted.”

“I'll be here.”

His suit in one hand and the web-shooters in the other, Peter walked back out a few minutes later, where he was eagerly awaited. “Right then, kid. What was your idea?”

So Peter explained his theories and together they went to work. It was really awkward, though. It was basically just Peter working on it and Tony sitting next to him, nodding along, not really doing anything. That's not how this was supposed to go! Sure, Peter didn't really need Tony's help with stuff like that, Peter was plenty smart enough for that and he just knew his suit way better than Tony did. He just wanted to work together with Tony, the way it used to be.

“Hate to say it, but it looks like you don't really need me for that, do you?”, Tony chuckled after a while and as much as Peter knew it was meant as a joke, it felt a lot realer.

“Yeah, but since you give my projects away, I thought I'd at least bring something you have to work with me on.” Oh fuck. It just came out, Peter couldn't help himself and to keep from making this whole thing even worse, he just stared a lot more intensely on the web-shooter than was necessary.

“Give your projects away? What are you going on about?” Tony's stare burned into Peter's side.

Damnit, Peter could feel he wasn't going to be calm or collected about this, the emotions that had been stacked high for two weeks or so all came flooding in. “I was just under the impression that Mark 22 was your and my project to work on, but I'm sure that there's a good reason why you'd just have Harley there”, he shrugged, trying to feign nonchalance that was lined with enough hurt that even Peter heard it. Fuck it, he was just going to let it all out, no matter how emotional and how horrible this would end, it had to be said, or yelled, or maybe even cried. No matter how, it all had to get out. “Oh, and when you said you'd call me later? I assumed you'd mean later that day, maybe the day after, not ten fucking days. But I guess it wasn't that surprising because ever since Harley showed up, you've been kinda too busy for me.”

The stunned silence hung heavy in the room. It was eventually Tony who broke it. “Is that really what you think?”

“Yeah”, Peter nodded, finally having gathered enough courage and defiance to look his mentor, his father figure in the eyes. Eyes, that were really hurt and sad. “I mean, I try not to, but I still do. And I'm sure that Harley is super smart and... whatever, so I get it, somehow.”

“No, you don't get it”, Tony threw in before Peter could spiral some more. “I love you, kid. I do, and I am so sorry if you think that I'm done with you, or want to bench you or shit, because I do not ever want to do that. In trying to make Harley feel at home I did primarily focus on him and left you out, and that was so incredibly shitty of me and I am so sorry kid, you got no idea.” Oh fuck, Tony looked like he was gonna start crying. “I really am sorry.”

“Ok”, Peter nodded, wide eyed, not really sure what to say. Of course, the logical part of his brain had tried to tell him these last three or four weeks that Tony was just looking out for Harley; his anxiety worked a lot harder though and that feeling of being ignored in favour of somebody else was not going to disappear from one moment to the next. Then Peter'd do the only thing he properly knew how to do: go in for a hug.

There weren't a lot of people able to give hugs that rivalled those of Tony Stark. His arms wrapped tightly around Peter, he held him close and there were not many places that felt as safe as right here. He leaned over and kissed Peter's cheek. “I really love you, kid.”

“I love you, too”, he smiled, really smiled and completely meant it. As sucky as these last few weeks have been, it all seemed to be mostly alright again; at least enough to let go of all this bullshit for now.

“Then I'm glad”, Tony laughed and leaned back. “Suggestion: how about we work together all three of us, so you two can get to know each other? Because I'm really sure you two'll hit it off.”

“That might not be so easy though, Harley's a real douche.”

“Oh, what a great start”, Tony rolled his eyes.

“I mean it”, Peter defended his observation, “I tried giving him the benefit of the doubt, get to know him. But he really makes it impossible, has so far blocked any chance I took to talk to him and... ah”, Peter sighed. “I'm sorry, but he is a dick.”

“Can't keep on going on like this though, so you're gonna suck it up, he's gonna suck it up and we're gonna work together and you'll see that the other isn't so bad. Deal?”

“Fine.”

“Good. Then how about we finish up these shooters and then you'll stay for dinner. There's a certain daughter of mine who would probably riot if you didn't.”

“I think I value my life enough not to bring about the wrath of your spawn, so sure thing”, Peter grinned and, feeling fifty thousand pounds lighter than only fifteen minutes ago, he went back to the project at hand.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Alright, this was it. Peter took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

“Yeah, what's up?” Harley put his head through the now opening door, and, as soon as he saw Peter, something in his look changed. “Oh. Hi Peter.”

“Harley, hi. Can we talk a moment?”

“Sure. What's up?” He walked out into the hallway, closing the door and leaned against it, making it clear that he was not going to invite Peter inside. Fine with him.

Here goes nothing. “Ok, since we're not gonna get around having to deal with the other, can we just set up a truce? If you don't like me, that's ok, but maybe just that bit of civility makes our lives a lot easier.”

“Yeah”, Harley nodded, eyeing Peter up and down. “Guess I can do that.”

“Thanks. And I promise to be good, too.”

“Right.”

And there was the awkward silence again. At least, with Tony forcing them to work together, they at least had something to do and the silent pauses would not be as bad, but right now Peter just needed to get away from all this. “Great. See you 'round, Harley.”

“Yeah, you too.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Here they were then, all three in the lab. Private working after hours with Tony was not for any of Peter's or Harley's work project, they had eight hours a day for that after all and since it was easy for everyone living in the compound to mix work and private life, Pepper had put the rule of strict work-life separation in place. So, instead of working on his bionic extremities, Peter tinkered with a robot he had build.

“You know you eventually gotta name him”, Tony had said to Peter, when the first life signs were transmitted. But, even though he was probably going to call it Ben, Peter hadn't really done any official christening yet. Harley was working on some kind of engine, Peter hadn't really bothered with giving it too much attention, and Tony worked on Mark 17, when he wasn't checking in on the two young men. And he was blabby today... It was very unusual and kinda annoying.

“Mr Stark”, Peter groaned eventually, “what the hell is wrong with you today?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why are you so damn chatty?”

“Because you're not”, Tony shot back. “Look, both you little shits are important to me. And I really don't get how you're so weird around each other, and it's driving me absolutely insane! Can I like, I don't know, order you to get along?”

“It's not like we're fighting”, Harley shrugged, barely looking up from his engine.

“I probably would prefer you guys fighting.”

“No, you don't”, the two shot back in unison. “Look”, Peter grinned, “we're agreeing on something.”

“Oh, for the love of Edwin Jarvis, you two'll be the death of me.”


	3. Chapter 3

“So, the answer is twelve, alright then.” With a grin, Morgan put down her answer. That smile dropped quickly though, when Peter pointed at the next five questions that were still unanswered. “This is so flipping boring”, she groaned and let her pencil drop down. “I mean, I get how it works, you just add and subtract stuff, until you know how big X is. Can't we just leave it at that?”

“Girl, don't take that up with me. I didn't tell you to do all these, your teacher did. Come on, since it's that easy it'll be done in no time and then I might have heard a rumour about there being chocolate pie in the Avenger's kitchen.” She definitely understood his insinuation, especially since it was accompanied by enough winking for even the dumbest to get it.

“Damn you, Parker”, she grumbled and went to the next equation, “you better not be lying or not even Spider-Man can save you.”

That he did not doubt. But he definitely wasn't lying; Peter had spent today's lunch-break in the Avenger's kitchen, since Thor and Loki arrived today for a few days visit and Peter was more than stoked to reunite with his Asgardian friends. To properly celebrate, Thor had insisted on making pie so everybody would come and have a jolly reunion (Thor's words, not Peter's). He decided to keep it from Morgan, because there was nothing better than a surprised and excited Morgan's squealing.

With the expectation of chocolate pie, she finished her homework in record time and soon enough they made for the Avenger's kitchen.

“THOOOOR!” Morgan's cry of joy when Peter opened the door to the kitchen was every bit as delightful as he had hoped.

“Miss Morgan Starkdottir”, the semi-god beamed and picked her up, swinging her through the kitchen, before enveloping her in a bear hug. “I have missed you so much! Oh look at you, you have grown so much since we've last visited!”

“What do you mean, we?” In anticipation she leaned back and scanned the kitchen for her other Alien uncle.

“Although my brother's ego is big enough to be counted as a second person, I do believe he's talking about me”, Loki grinned, leaning against the door's frame.

“LOOOOOKIIII!” She cried out even louder as she jumped out of Thor's arms into Loki's.

“It is so good to see you”, he laughed. “But my brother is right; in the rate of your growth I soon shan't be able to pick you up any more!”

“Now you're just messing”, she giggled. “You're so strong, you can even lift up Peter!”

“That is no challenge”, Thor's laughter echoed through the kitchen, “young Peter is of barely any weight.”

“So?”, Peter shot back, “you're heavy as hell, and I can still pick you up.”

“That is true”, Thor nodded and put his arm around Peter's shoulder. “Your power is truly formidable. And I am not only talking about your physical strength”, he added with a smile and Peter couldn't help but blush at the praise of THE god of thunder who thought Peter to be a powerful person. That shit was truly good for his ego.

“When did you come back? How long will you stay? And what are your plans?” As Peter still basked in the praise, Morgan questioned Loki on every little detail of their earthly vacation.

“We just arrived today, and if there is nothing interfering with those plans, we shall stay until next Tuesday.”

“Oh, that is so awesome! That means you can come to my soccer game! It's on Monday, I'm a midfielder, we'll play against a school from AC, and they are like our arch enemies, and we are so going to kick their butts!”

“I have not a single doubt that you will level the playing field with those Atlantean students. And I will love to join you there.”

“Awesome!”

The oven-timer beeping a little while later interrupted Morgan filling the Asgardian's travel itinerary with more appointments than either would be able to attend to. “That must be the pie”, Thor exclaimed and it smelled heavenly. It looked even better. And in no time at all, the kitchen was overflowing with Avengers, happy for a slice of pie.

“I believe if there are any more people attending this celebration, we will run out of pie”, Thor worried, looking at the tin emptying quickly.

“And I believe that those people are joining this celebration not because of the food but because of you and Loki”, Peter assured him.

“That is wonderful to hear”, he smiled. “So, I do have some inquiries to make” he eventually asked, lowering his voice. Peter was well aware that inquiring was Thor's form of gossip.

“Go ahead, ask.”

“I was told about a young man, joining the company.”

“You mean Harley?”

“Indeed. Of all our friends, you are the only one who does work with him and are therefore able to tell me about this new member of the Stark-family.”

“He's really smart.”

“That was an unusually restraint answer from you.”

Damnit, Thor knew Peter really to well for him to get out of giving a proper answer. The truth was that even though things were fairly rocky between them, Harley was admittedly kind of a cool guy. But Peter couldn't admit to that, never. There'd be an endless tirade of Tony telling him: “I told you so” and Peter really had better things to worry about than that. Besides, that sibling rivalry Peter and Harley had going was still very much on and Peter wasn't gonna lose, just 'cause Harley was kinda funny sometimes.

“He's an alright guy”, he just answered, “I just don't really know him that well yet. But Tony really likes him, I think that's a good testimony of his character.”

“That is true, Stark has an uncanny capability to recruit the most remarkable young people”, Thor smiled and Peter leaned in.

“Thanks. Means the world to me.”


	4. Chapter 4

With Peter and Harley being caught in some kind of rivalry, it wasn't unexpected for things to be exhaustingly competitive.

“I'm all done with the wiring”, Harley chirped, but that nonchalance was bullshit, he was dead sure he was quicker at that than Peter had been.

As much as it pained Peter, he unfortunately had to burst Harley's bubble. “That's great, hun. Means you can work on some real engineering, like the rest of the grown-ups.” Oh, that shit was petty and Peter loved it. He loved it almost as much as Harley turning wonderfully reddish.

“Oh, it's on”, he grumbled and Peter doubted Tony heard it and was pretty sure that he wasn't meant to hear it either, but unbeknownst to him, Harley had made an adversary of Spider-Man and Peter pitied the fool. Ok, that was a lie, Peter was already looking forward to all of Harley's pranks backfiring, because they couldn't compete with Peter's spider-senses.

“May is calling”, FRI announced after a while of work that was silent, except for Harley's disgruntled mumbling to himself.

“Put her through”, Peter grinned. “Hi Aunt May.”

“Hey Pete, are you still at work?”

“Sort of”, he shrugged. “I'm in the lab with Tony and Harley.”

“That's nice. How is Operation Venom going?”

“Operation Venom?” Both Tony and Harley turned to Peter, who within seconds blushed in all the shades of red. Fuck.

“Uhm, May, you're on speaker...”

“Oh. Hello Tony, hello Harley. Please disregard my last question. What I called for: are you coming home for dinner tonight?”

“Depends”, Peter answered, hoping he would just turn invisible, “is Happy home?”

“He is. Which doesn't mean you have to stay away.”

“Yes, I do”, Peter nodded, “you can ask Morgan about our stance on parents on date-night.”

“Fine”, May chuckled, “I'll see you tomorrow then?”

“If I survive tonight”, Peter gulped, finally looking up at Harley, who looked... Peter wasn't sure, there was something mischievous glinting up and well, what the hell was Peter supposed to make of that?

“Don't worry, I believe Tony remembers what'll happen to him if he lets anyone harm you.”

“Yeah, I do.” Now it was Tony's turn to gulp at May's warning of making sure that he'd suffer every little injury Peter'd get; she personally would make sure of that.

“Good”, she laughed, “have a nice afternoon then and I love you, Pete.”

“I love you, too Aunt May.”

“Call ended.”

“Thanks FRI”, Peter sighed and decided it would be best to ignore the whole thing for now and just turned back to his robot.

“Operation Venom?”

“Are you trying to poison us?”

Of course they would not let it drop. Ugh, let's just get through this, and then Peter'd just hide in Morgan's room until judgement day, or at least until Aunt May could come and pick him up.

“No, I'm not. You know Eddie Brock, right?”

“Oh, for the love of Peggy Carter”, Tony groaned, “Operation Venom as in parasite?”

“Yeah”, Peter shrugged, still deeply flushed. “Had no choice in the matter, the parasite doesn't seem to make any move to leave so might as well just try and learn to live with it.”

“Wait, I'M the parasite?”, Harley cried out.

Peter just shrugged.

“Oh my god”, he wheezed, “this is perfect. I've been working on Operation Cockroach.”

“Oh, you calling me a cockroach?” Peter couldn't believe what he heard there.

“No matter what I do, you just don't die, in the metaphorical sense”, he quickly added when Tony looked like he was about to faint. “All I can do now is try and get along with that roach because I am not gonna get rid of that pest.”

As their confessions sunk in, all Peter and Harley could do was just silently stare at each other, while Peter tried to work through being called a damn cockroach. Not the first time, JJJ repeatedly called Spider-Man an unkillable pest, so nothing too unusual there.

Not sure who went first, they just broke out into laughter.

“Operation Venom”, Harley giggled, “that's really smart actually.”

“Thanks”, Peter snickered back. “And Operation Cockroach? I can respect that.”

“Awesome. So, I don't wanna sound like a douchebag, but I've been thinking about that limping problem your bot has and have an idea or two. Do you mind if I share them?”

“Oh, please”, Peter nodded eagerly and Harley walked over to his workstation. “I can use all the help I can get.”

“So, I was thinking that the programming of the walking function is...”

“WHAT THE FUCK?” Tony crying out had them both look up. Admittedly, Peter might have forgotten their mentor being there for a moment. “You call each other parasite and cockroach and all of a sudden you're friends?”

They exchanged a few glances before looking back at Tony and just shrugged.

In the span of the next few seconds, Tony's facial expression went through an incredible journey of confusion, to consternation, to unbelieving, to eventually one of silent surrender. “Alright”, he shrugged and shaking his head he went back to screwing around with a repulsor. Well, that conversation wasn't yet over, but that didn't matter, because with Harley's help, Ben actually managed to properly walk.

“Dude, you're a genius.”

“I hadn't noticed”, Harley feigned innocence as he sauntered back to his engine.

And Peter could only scoff a laugh. “You damn parasite.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Ok, you got this Peter”, Morgan assured him and patted him encouragingly on the shoulder.

“Thanks, Mo”, he sighed. “Without you believing in me, I wouldn't get far.”

“Ugh, you drama queen.” She roll her eyes, pulled Peter off the couch and pushed him towards Tony, making googly eyes at Pepper.

“Your conspiring over?”, Tony remarked without looking away from Pepper. That wouldn't do; for Peter's idea to work he needed to be able to look at his father figure.

“Yes, Mr Stark”, he nodded and that was enough prompting for Tony to turn his head.

“Oh, Pepper, did you hear that? He called me Mr Stark. What do you want, kid?”

“Ned is in town for the next few days”, he beamed up, shooting Tony the best puppy eyes he could muster up. “And Shuri says she has some business in the states...”

“So you want to reunite the baby-science-bros?”

“We're not really babies any more, but yeah.”

“Oh no”, Tony groaned, probably remembering one of the last times they worked together and might have accidentally given Peter a new hair cut with a laser. “Do I need to be part of that?”

“We would be thankful for just your lab.”

“Ah. Pepper, are all insurances up to date?”

“Unless they create a mutated squid, we should be good.”

“Damnit, there go all our plans.” As hard as Peter tried to sound sarcastic and disgruntled, he couldn't help his voice doing that excited skip, for working together with Ned and Shuri. “But thank you, Tony, you're the best!” After hugging Tony and shooting Morgan two thumbs up, Peter all but skipped into the elevator. “FRI, conference call Ned and Shuri.”

“Peter!”

“Abuxeni!”

“So, good news”, he grinned, “the Baby-Science-Bros are a-go.”

“Awesome! I can't wait!”, Ned squealed.

“Me neither. Knowing the tinman I assume there are some restrictions put in place.”

“The only rule was not to create mutant squids”, Peter recapped, “other than that we're good.”

“Is it only squids, or does the rule extend to all kind of Cephalopoda?”

“I like your thinking, Shuri”, Peter laughed. “I'll see you two here then tomorrow.”

“Yebo. My brother can deal with the UN by himself.”

“And I'm not even weirded out or overwhelmed by that very statement any more”, Ned giggled. “Can't wait!”

* * *

“OMIGOD, HE'S HERE!”

The cry probably startled Tony into a mild cardiac arrest, but Peter couldn't care. He hadn't seen Ned in months, so any and all outburst of intense emotions were completely deserved and should be absolutely forgiveable. What also should be forgiveable was him just jumping from the breakfast table, not really caring if he spilled his cereal or maybe tossed his chair over in his unbridled excitement. Waiting for the elevator or using the stairs was just not a possibility right now, not when there was a much faster route.

“Peter, please no...” Tony, May and Happy groaned in unison, but Peter already jumped out the window and within seconds he had swung down the building and landed in the parking spot, just as Ned got out of his car.

And time stopped as they finally embraced again. “I missed you!”

“I missed you more!”

“That's not possible”, Peter made clear, “and you're an absolutely horrible person for moving to the West Coast.”

“I know...”

“Seriously, it's bullshit. MJ moved to Chicago, Gwen is in Seattle and you're making it in Silicon Valley. My best friend in the city is now Johnny Storm. Johnny. Freaking. Storm. That's who I have to go to for advice and stuff now. And that's all your fault.”

“Oh, don't you dare turn that around on me!”, Ned defended himself, “there are more than enough people around, you didn't have to choose the Torch.”

“How long have you two been married?” In their bickering neither Peter nor Harley realized Shuri arriving.

“Your majesty”, Peter grinned and went to hug his friend.

“Get in here, Ned”, Shuri laughed and a few moments later Peter wasn't sure anymore where he ended and his friends began. And he had no idea how long they were entangled like that but eventually they did make it inside and into the lab.

“So, no squids. Any other animal we're not allowed to mutate?”

“Pepper never mentioned anything else.”

“Good. I assume messing around with spiders would be redundant”, Shuri grinned and Peter answered with the deadpan of the century.

“You could show us what's going on with Ben”, Ned suggested and Peter was so glad, because he just couldn't think of a sassy reply.

“Happily! Ben, there's some people you gotta meet!” With the help of Harley, Peter had managed to fix the limp, but it still squeaked a little as the robot walked over and the baby-science-bros spent the next hour or so doting over the robot. Until they were ripped out of it.

“Uhm hey.” Harley stood in the door and looked from Peter to Shuri to Ned. “One roach not enough in here?”

“Excuse me?” Shuri stood himself in front of Harley. “Who are you calling a roach?”

“Who are you then?”, he asked, looking her up and down and oh damn, that could not end well for Harley. Peter just wished he had popcorn for the spectacle that was watching Shuri tear Harley a new one.

“I am Shuri, crown princess of Wakanda and chief engineer of the royal palace. And who are you?”

“Uhm...” All the colour drained from Harley's face as he glanced over at Peter, who just nodded. “I'm sorry, I'm Harley Keener, I work at SI. Your majesty.”

“Don't do that”, she waved him off. “Still did not answer my questions about the roach.”

“That's me”, Peter called over with a wave.

“And why do you call Peter a cockroach?”

“Because I call him parasite”, he grinned.

Shuri just looked between the rivals, before sighing: “I don't even want to know.”

“I do”, Ned grinned. “Hi, I'm Ned by the way.”

“Hi Ned. Well, apparently, I am a parasite, sucking in on Peter's golden life with Tony, not making any move to leave, so he'll just have to deal with me.”

“And I am enough of an unkillable pest that he actually saved me in his phone as 'la cuccaracha', including the personalized ringtone.”

“Oh god, I don't know if you guys are sickeningly cheesy, or just sickening.”

“Yeah, well”, Peter just shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

“This is a wild guess but I assume that the three of you are the reason for Tony gently rocking back and forth and staring intently at the wall.”

“There's absolutely no reason for him to freak out, I already promised Pepper that we won't mutate any squids.”

“So, knowing you, you'll be working on octopi or any other kind of cephalopods.”

“It would be pretty awesome, since they come with hella cool bioluminescence. But since Tony's lab is not equipped for marine engineering we can't.”

“We've been getting to know Ben instead”, Ned explained, patting the robot's head.

“That's... cute.”

“First of all, that bot is amazing and fantastic. Secondly, how about you asshole shut up and suggest something better?”

“I don't get it”, Ned remarked, looking from one to the other, “do you guys hate each other or not?”

“I'd say this looks like frenemies”, Shuri observed.

“Whatever”, Harley waved it off, “if you guys are that into bright colour how about instead of bioluminescent fish you go for fireworks or shit?”

“That's actually a pretty decent idea”, Peter nodded. “Didn't think you had it in you, not bad.”

“Oh thank you for that ringing endorsement”, Harley rolled his eyes. “Have fun blowing yourself up.”

“You wanna work with us?” Oh, why did Peter just suggest that? Fine, Harley's cooler than Peter wanted to give him credit, but that was just it – Peter didn't want to give him credit.

“If it's cool with you guys, sure.”

“The more the merrier”, Ned nodded with some weird grin.

“I agree”, Shuri agreed, with the same infuriatingly suggestive grin that Peter just couldn't place. Whatever, if they messed around with explosives and fireworks, Peter should probably focus on not blowing them up or burning off his eyebrows, never ever again.

* * *

“Hey Mo, you still up?” Peter put his door through Morgan's door.

“Yeah, what's going on?” She was already bundled up and blinked out from underneath her blankets.

“I've got a surprise for you, come on.” He held his hand out and after unfolding herself from the blankets, she trotted over, took it and let Peter pull herself out. “Be quiet, don't want to get into trouble with Dad.”

“Got it”, she whispered and together they tiptoed out of the apartment and out on the dark lawn, where the rest of the Baby-Science-Bros were waiting for them.

“Good, you're here. I can't wait to light this mother up”, Harley greeted them.

“What's going on? And why can't Daddy know?”

“Just watch, it's gonna be good”, Ned assured her.

“We need to stay a bit to the side. Come, over here.”

A bit away from their little project, the guys and Morgan made themselves comfortable and, after counting down from three, Shuri lit the fuse.

“What's happening?”

“Just look there.” Peter pointed up at the dark sky and then it started. Bright lights illuminated the night air and exploded high above them in the brightest colours.

“Oh wow!”, Morgan goggled, “that is so beautiful!”

“Just wait for it.”

The special surprise blew up next. In big letters their names were written up in the sky: Shuri, Ned, Peter, Harley and last but not least Morgan, followed by oh so many hearts and stars. And it looked amazing, even more so than Peter had imagined it to be. Everything sparkled and coloured the area in all the hues of the rainbow, as firework after firework blew up above them.

With a gigantic circular rainbow the spectacle ended, leaving them all wide eyed and in awe, especially Morgan could not stop her goggling and wide-eyed wonder.

“That was so amazing!”, she kept on repeating as she and Peter tiptoed back into the penthouse.

“I'm really happy you enjoyed it, me too”, he whispered back, “but we need to be quiet or Dad and Mum will know I snuck you out of bed.”

“And then we'll both get grounded.”

“Don't worry, if anybody's getting grounded it'll be me and Harley.”

“But since you like him now that's ok, isn't it? If you get grounded together, that is.”

“I guess...” It would probably be quite fun, actually, if Peter and Harley were looked up together. Then again, Tony wasn't dumb enough to ever do that to himself or his building. “Sleep well, darling”, he whispered once they arrived at her bedroom door and leaned over to kiss her cheeks.

“You too, sweetie”, she beamed and slipped into her room.

“Well, Peter was right about one thing; our daughter is a darling, don't you agree, Tony?”, Pepper chuckled and, after Peter was sure the ground wasn't going to spontaneously open and swallow him whole, he turned to Tony leaning against the door frame, and Pepper leaning against Tony.

“He was right about something else, too: grounding him and Harley seems like quite the viable option”, Tony smirked.

Well, shit.

“You didn't think me and Pepper wouldn't know about your little project or not notice you guys lighting up this place.”

“We didn't create any mutant squids, just as promised”, Peter made clear. “And we didn't climb through that gaping loophole by cloning any octopi.”

“Guess they didn't break any of our rules”, Pepper shrugged and pulled Tony into the living room.

“Pretty sure there's laws against fireworks.”

“Says the guy regularly blowing shit up”, Peter scoffed, following behind them. “Besides, it's on private property, think that's something different.”

“Honestly no idea, but whatever”, Tony grumbled. “Good job, gotta hand it to you. Was a pretty nice show. Think you might have forgotten a name or two there, though.” And there was the exasperated raised eyebrow with the signature finger-point.

“We can create another one just for you and Pepper”, Peter grinned. “So, if you don't ground me, there's some stuff in the garden to tidy up and I think if I leave it all to the others, they'll take it out on me. Although”, Peter shrugged, “now that you know about it we don't need to get rid of all the evidence in time.”

“Oh no”, Tony made clear. “My beautiful, wonderful wife is going to take me to bed and when we wake up tomorrow morning, I better not see even a tiny scrap of metal, or all four of you will be locked up; I'm pretty sure Wakanda has some nice cells T'Challa could loan me.”

“I will let them know”, Peter smiled extra friendly and very fake, before turning on his heel, ignoring the chuckles behind him and heading as quickly as he could back out, without looking like he was running from Tony, of course not.

“So, unless all this is tidy by sunrise, Tony'll have her brother lock us up in royal jail.”

“Wait, her brother as in the king of Wakanda?” Harley's eyes went wide-eyed. “Can he do that?”

“Knowing Tony and my brother”, Shuri shrugged, “yebo.”

“Oh, good to know”, Harley gulped and went to work at probably double the speed as he worked before. It was adorable, and knowing Tony and T'Challa, Peter and Shuri just shot each other some knowing grins before going back to work themselves.

“On the flipside, he thought we did a pretty nice job, so there's that.”

  
  



	6. Chapter 6

“Come on, Peter!”, Morgan groaned and kept on banging against the door to Peter's ensuite. “You've been in there forever.”

“Don't rush perfection”, he cried back and put the finishing touch on his hair. Yeah, that was definitely perfection. The dark blue suit was fitting just how it was supposed to, and the silver tie gave it all just that bit of _je-ne-sais-quoi._ Peter had no idea what that meant, but read about that in some magazine, and it sounded good. One more look in the mirror, straightening everything out and bam! Perfect for the Avengers celebrating some weird Asgardian holiday with Thor and Loki. _The victory of …_ some place, Peter couldn't pronounce. Apparently that victory hundreds of years ago brought them am age of unequalled peace and therefore offered Asgardians and everybody celebrating with them the chance to get dressed up and get drunk. Seriously drunk on Asgardian mead that even worked on Peter's enhanced metabolism.

“PETER!”

“I'm ready.” One last look later, he unlocked the door and walked out to his awaiting sorta-sister.

“Why did it take so long to put on a suit?” Looking Peter up and down, she did not seem impressed by his amazing looks.

“Screw you, I look incredible. Now, my lady”, he held his arm out to her. “Shall we?”

“We shall”, Morgan giggled and linked her arm with his. “I can't wait for the cake! I mean, all of Thor's cakes are fantastic, but that special Victory-Day thing is even better.”

“Well, good for you”, Peter moped, rolling his eyes.

“Aw sorry, I forgot!” Apologetically, she patted his arm. According to Loki, mint was one of the important ingredients this cake could just not do without. Unfortunately, mint was one of the things Peter's spider-genes were so allergic to that not even an epi-pen would make it worth it. If it weren't for that Asgardian beer, stronger than his metabolism, Peter would definitely not like this holiday as much as he did.

“That's alright, though”, he shrugged, “there's so many other cakes and food, I think I'll be alright. Please, my lady, let me open the door for you.” With an exaggerated bow, Peter opened the door for her and, after a curtsy, they walked inside.

“Wow.” Wide eyed, Peter and Morgan stared around the living room, which was no longer recognizable as such. Tapestries that belonged in a Norse history museum lined the walls, there was a giant buffet that not even all the super-metabolisms in this house would be able to finish, lanterns and fairy lights were lighting up the place and all the Avengers were dressed to the nines.

“Peter! Morgan! How wonderful you could make it”, Thor laughed as he walked up and swooped both off their feet into an embrace. “I am truly honoured that you could join my people's celebration.”

“We are honoured to be invited”, Peter smiled back.

“Thor, it's so beautiful”, Morgan goggled, still staring at the intricate woven patterns depicting stories that prominently seemed to centre around Thor, Loki and some others Peter did not know, standing victoriously over a bunch of what were probably the corpses of their enemies. Quite graphic, but that was the Asgardian style.

“The thanks must go to my brother, Loki has prepared all this. But you are looking more radiant than any of these decorations, milady Starkdottir.” He put them back down on the ground and took a bow in front of Morgan. “Not even Freyja in all her glory can compare to you; not even the Morningstar can sparkle brighter than your beauty.”

“Thank you.” Now she beamed even more than the rhinestones in her white dress with all the tulle, making her look like some Disney princess. All in all, she was the most beautiful girl in here.

“And you are growing into an unbelievably handsome young man, Peter”, Thor smiled at him.

“Thanks.” And now it was Peter's turn to blush in pride. “You look really great, too.”

“Well, thank you. Please, we are just about to cut the cake. And Peter, there is a cake without mint but extra chocolate just for you.”

“Awesome!”

“Of course, as usual, Peter needs extras, that diva”, Harley scoffed, coming up behind Peter.

“Seriously, Dude?” With a roll of his eyes, Peter turned and only momentarily froze in his movements. Fuck, Harley looked good. Dark red trousers Peter would call form-fitting, a white shirt, just as tight, and a blue vest with some embroidering. Damnit, that all suited him well, but Peter was not gonna let anybody realize him maybe being a little turned on at that view, so he tried not to let his defiance and annoyance – as played as both of them were – falter. “I'll happily eat from the other cake, even though it'd probably kill me. But then again, I'm sure you wouldn't mind that too much, would ya?”

“I mean...”, Harley shrugged, pondering his options and, if Peter wasn't mistaken, he was not just looking Peter up and down, but maybe even checking him out a bit. Well, that was nice, that he was not the only one who thought himself to be quite the eye-catcher tonight.

“Got it”, Peter winked. “Let me just tell Tony that you want to kill me, and that'll be the end of Harley Keener.”

“It's not like I never said anything like that out loud before. Whatever, Thor just broke out the Asgardian mead and Clint says it's the most amazing shit.”

“Yeah, I'm gonna wait with that until Morgan, May and Tony aren't around any more. Because that shit hits hard and fast. And I will not be drunk around my family.”

“I didn't even think of it like that...”

“Let me put it that way: Thor can jug a bottle of vodka and it's like he drank a glass of water. That stuff gets him drunk like normal beer works on Happy or so.”

“Oh shit, it's that bad? Man, I don't know, I kinda wanna remember tonight though.”

“A glass is alright. But I wouldn't drink too much else”, Peter added with a nod to Harley's beer mug.

“Probably a good point...”

“Wait.” With wide eyes Peter turned to Harley. “Did you just agree with me?”

“Don't get a big head”, Harley scoffed, “I might be a little tipsy already.”

“If alcohol works like a truth serum on you, maybe you should go for the Asgardian stuff already. It would be very informative and so funny”, Peter grinned and even Harley chuckled a bit.

“Nevermind that, since I've never seen you drink anything before, I'm really curious as to how that's gonna affect you.”

That's true, the only time Peter drinks alcohol is when Thor brings his hardcore stuff. Sure, he could drink beer or wine when the people around him drank, but Peter didn't like it enough to drink without the added bonus of a bit of a buzz. And, even if alcohol didn't affect Peter the way it affected normal people, his body probably wasn't too mad that it didn't have to deal with it.

“Since I'm not really sure either, I don't want my Aunt or Tony around to witness that. Capiche?”

“Capiche. Come on, piece of cake?”

“Always. Unless you try and kill me.”

“Spoilsport”, Harley grumbled, before the grin broke through. “So, just for future murder plans, what is it that you're allergic against?”

“I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you”, Peter fake-smiled as they walked over to the still overflowing buffet.

With Thor suddenly standing in their way, they didn't get to reach their destination though. “Boys, come, we dance now.”

“But, cake”, Harley whimpered, but Thor already pulled them behind him to the makeshift dance floor.

“Not a chance, if Thor wants to dance we dance, not matter how much you crave that minty death trap.”

“So it's mint you're allergic to?”, Harley grinned. “Good to know, very good to know.”

“Let us dance as if we were just welcomed into Valhalla!”

“So, as if we're dead?”, Harley mumbled in Peter's ear. “I can arrange that for you real quickly, if Thor'd let me get to the buffet.”

“Ha, ha”, Peter deadpanned, “I'll send you to Valhalla, because I'm gonna kill it on the dance floor.” With that he turned away from Harley, to the middle of the dance floor and, well. Peter had taken dance classes in school, was really good at it and was next to Tasha the best dancer the Avengers had to offer. She joined him and the spiders turned it out. At one point, Peter saw Harley with his jaw on the ground and was slightly proud to have achieved just that and he decided right here and now that he would be a total smug prick about it for the next few days.

“May I ask for this dance?” In her sparkly white dress Morgan looked up with big eyes and curtsied.

“It would be my honour”, he bowed and took her hand and, after showing her how, they waltzed together through the room.

“You're really good at this.”

“We both are”, he made clear. “And we are so much better than anybody else here. Look, Bucky and Steve.” He nodded in their direction and she followed his look to the super-soldier couple, clearly a little drunk on Thor's mead already. Their movement wasn't what Peter would call graceful, but they shot each other such exaggerated heart-eyes, it probably didn't bother either of them.

“Good point. So, since we're already the best here, we can do some tricks or stuff, right? Like you could teach me a lift or twirl me or something.”

“Very ambitious, milady, I like that”, Peter grinned back. “Fine, so we'll do a twirl first, so it's one, two, three and then you'll let go of my shoulder and I'll spin you, ok?”

“Got it.”

“One, two, three.” With all the layers of fabric, it all flowed around beautifully, and if Peter was not as nice a person he would compare the sparkling rhinestones to a disco ball.

“That felt like it look really good.”

“Oh, it did. Wanna do it again?”

“Definitely!”

So, a few spins later, Morgan got understandably dizzy. “Now we do a lift, ok?”

“Sure thing”, he nodded, as they went back to waltzing through the room. “I'm gonna count to three again, and then you'll jump, put your arms up in the air. I'll step behind you, hold you there by your waist and keep on dancing a bit with you held high. And, if you're extra adventurous, you can do some figures, like keeping your legs out or something.”

“That sounds like it's gonna look so amazing.”

“You betcha”, Peter grinned. “Ready or not, here we go. One, two three.” As he explained to her, she jumped up and, as he promised, he held her tightly. Well, all he could see were layers and layers of tulle and one of the rhinestones was uncomfortably scratching his nose. The awes he heard from around the room made very much up for it though. Judging from the rustling of the fabric in his face, Morgan tried a few moves. After a while he whispered a: “I'm gonna let you down now” and in one swift movement, he changed his arms so she could fall into his arms, laying there bridal style. “You good?”

“Yeah”, she beamed. “You?”

“Now that I no longer have your stones in my nose, I am. There's one more thing I'd like to try, if you're cool with I.”

“Anything! What did you think about?”

“Dirty Dancing.”

“What's that?”

“Did your Dad teach you nothing?”, Peter sighed. “Right, that's what we're gonna do.”

After explaining to her the most iconic dance move from any dance movie ever, Morgan giggled: “I love it, but Dad's gonna have a heart attack.”

“Ah, I've done worse to him”, Peter shrugged. “Right, let's do this. Take your position, Madam.”

“Yes, Monsieur.” With the most theatrical twirls, she walked a few steps over, the glittering fabric clearing the space they needed without any explanations. Once she deemed the distance far away enough, she turned and grinned at Peter, who nodded, and she started running.

“Oh, don't you dare!”, Tony cried out, getting what they were about to do, but unperturbed by her dad's cries, she ran these last few steps into Peter's arms, jumped and, thanks to spider-strength, he lifted her up without too much hassle.

“NO ONE PUTS BABY IN A CORNER!”, she shouted, just as instructed and the watching crowd either laughed or clapped as Peter turned on the spot, showing her off to everybody surrounding them. Tony was still a little pale, but clapped along. Harley was a little shocked, probably didn't think Peter would be able to pull such a thing off and once again Peter was proud to have rendered him speechless and proven wrong.

After a few more spins, Peter gently and slowly let her down. “Ok, that was awesome”, he grinned.

“More than awesome! Like...”

“Like supercallifragilisticexpialidocious?”

“I have no idea what that means, but yes.”

Ok, this went too far. “Mr Stark”, Peter yelled and, to keep from letting his unbelief out on Morgan who had no say in the matter, he stormed towards his mentor. “Have you taught your daughter nothing?”

“What are the grounds for this baseless accusation after almost killing my beloved offspring, Mr Parker?”

“She doesn't know what Dirty Dancing is, which I might be able to excuse, but Mary Poppins? That is unbelievable.”

“That was pure protective instinct, I already have one kid constantly singing Disney songs, I don't need two of them.”

“Unbelievable”, Peter shook his head and walked back to Morgan. “Right, I'm danced out for now. Cake?”

“I'm hurt you even have to ask”, she grinned and took his hand.

  
  


* * *

  
  


As the evening got late, the crowd thinned out more and more. And when after a while everybody, Peter was wary of being drunk in front of had left, he finally let Harley pull him to the already half-empty barrel.

“Remember, enjoy responsibly.”

“Yes, mum”, he deadpanned.

“Peter, it is wonderful that you do share a drink with us now”, Loki smiled. He clearly had enjoyed a bit of the mead already, he wasn't slurring his speech or swaying, but he had quite the rosy cheeks and was a lot more cuddly as usual.

“Loki, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to finally get to drink with you again.”

“Then let us toast to the victorious day and to friendship.”

“To friendship!”

Yup, that burned a lot more than Peter remembered it. No worry, if his memory served at least somewhat reliable, he wouldn't care about that around the third sip.

“Oh damn.” Harley stared wide-eyed at Peter and Loki. “That shit hits quickly.”

“Yeah”, Peter giggled. “That's the whole point of Asgardian mead.”

“Right, I always forget the pitiful digestability of mortals”, Loki nodded.

“Don't worry”, Harley snickered, “we might not be able to drink as much, but we are just as much fun as any god of mischief. CHEERS!” With that he took another generous sip. “Come on, Parker, don't fall behind.”

No need to tell Peter that twice, and soon he was wonderfully drunk and, at least for the duration of his buzz and his hangover, several braincells poorer.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Can you do that with me, too?”

“Huh?” To Peter, who was currently philosophizing with Clint about the ethics of naming animals that looked nothing like what they were named after (like clown fish or emperor penguins), Harley's slurring didn't mean a lot.

“Like with Morgan”, he slurred, “Dirty Dancin'.”

With the alcohol slowing his brain, it took Peter embarrassingly long to figure out what Harley was driving at. “Wait, you... you want me to lift you?”

“Yeah”, he nodded.

Looking at Peter's next argument while sober, especially knowing about Peter's strength, was maybe a tiny clue that Peter wasn't the smartest while drunk. “But you're bigger. You should lift me.”

“Fine.” Harley seemed to be even cockier when inebriated and stumbled over to the dance floor that was empty, given that everybody was too tired, too stuffed or too drunk to really dance.

“Fine”, Peter shrugged. “Ready?”

“Ready!”, Harley called back, held his arms out and Peter started running. Well, sort of. Speed-walking, better yet speed-staggering and he jumped once he was in front of Harley, who lifted him up. Fine, tried to lift him up. What felt to Peter like a dramatic fall in slow-motion, to everybody else present it looked more like him jumping on top of Harley and them crashing on the ground.

“That was horrible”, Peter mumbled, once he was sure that he wasn't dead. “You alright?”, he asked Harley who lay underneath him, luckily having broken Peter's fall.

“I think I'll live”, Harley groaned and looked up at Peter.

Huh. All Peter would have to do was lean a little bit in and he would be kissing Harley. He couldn't kiss Harley, Harley was his rival after all. And people don't kiss their rivals. But in the movie, Baby kisses Patrick Swayze after the lift and just because the lift didn't work, didn't mean that Peter and Harley weren't still in the movie. Besides, it would be pretty fun. That settled it. With a grin, Peter closed the last few centimetres between them and smooched Harley right on the lips.

“That was really fun”, Peter giggled, when he leaned back and got back up. “I want cake. Come on, let's get cake.” He held his hand out to Harley, who was still a little confused as to what just happened and stared back with wide eyes. “Harley. I want cake”, Peter repeated and gestured a little wilder with his outstretched hand and finally Harley got it and let Peter pull him to his feet. “Great. So, important: where's the cake?”

And that's when Peter's memory gave out.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“THE FUCK?”

A loud cry woke Peter up. Opening his eyes was probably the hardest thing he ever had to do and yes, he included the time he had to crawl out from underneath a collapsed building. But what he saw was better at getting him alert than any cup of coffee: Harley, very much naked, staring at Peter who was wrapped around him.

“WHAT?” In one movement, Peter let go of Harley and jumped out of bed, only now realizing that he, too, was wearing only his birthday suit. “Shit”, he grumbled, flushing at the intensity of his spider-suit and grabbed a blanket to wrap around him.

“What the absolute fuck happened?”

“I have no idea. But I think I'm getting sick”, Peter moaned before heading into his ensuite. Thankfully, they were in his room, if he had to throw up at Harley's he would be a lot more embarrassed than he already was.

“I hope for your benefit that that's the alcohol and not me”, Harley grumbled as he trotted over and patted Peter's back. “Here.” He held out a glass of water and an aspirin and only after taking it, Peter remembered that Aspirin did his giant headache about as much good as a band-aid on a sawed off arm.

“Bit of both, probably”, Peter chuckled, when he was sure only words would come out if he opened his mouth.

“Fair enough”, Harley shrugged and, from the sound of it, fell back on the bed. “What the absolute fuck happened?”

“I don't know.” Walking back out, Peter saw the mess they had turned his room into. Clothes strewn everywhere, he was just happy that none of the expensive suits had ripped, at least not from first glance. Well that, plus them waking up naked, snuggled together, didn't leave too much to the imagination on how the night had ended. How did they get here, though? “Here.” He grabbed a shirt and boxers from his closet, threw them at Harley, before grabbing some for himself. This was already going to be bad enough, maybe they should at least wear something for it.

“Thanks. So, the last thing I recall is teaching Thor and Bucky the Macarena dance. How about you?”

“First of all stop shouting”, Peter groaned and, once dressed, fell on the bed and pulled the blanket over his eyes, maybe that way the light wouldn't burn him up. “And then last thing I remember is you wanting to do the Dirty Dancing lift with me, us obviously crashing and then...” Fuck. Then Peter kissed Harley. Sure, it had been a fun thing to do, and Peter hadn't thought anything besides how hilarious it would be to kiss Harley, but now that it led them here? Peter could not own up to that. “And then it goes dark”, he lied.

“That explains why my back hurts like hell. Please tell me no one saw that?”

“A few might have”, Peter shrugged, “but apparently after the first Avenger party, Tony added a party protocol to FRIDAY, meaning that there would be no filming of everybody embarrassing themselves and more importantly, no blackmail material.”

“Smart. Guess he's called genius for a reason.”

“Yeah.” Peter glanced out from underneath the blanket. “As long as we didn't start making out in front of all them, can we just keep this to us?”

“Oh, definitely. I do not need this to hang over my head. It was a drunk mistake, period. At least it was fun”, he added with a grin.

“Wait, so you remember?”

“I do not”, Harley admitted, “but if it had been bad, I wouldn't have fallen asleep in your arms.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Would you look at that, Tweedledee and Tweedledum have made it out of bed” Tony smirked as Peter and Harley trudged into the penthouse.

“Clearly I'm Tweedledee”, Peter snorted and fell on a chair.

“How'd you figure?”

“'Cause Harley's dumb.”

“Whatever”, Harley grumbled, pulled the hood of his sweater deeper into his face.

“Well, you two missed breakfast and lunch, but there's plenty of leftovers from last night.”

“Don't even mention food”, Peter groaned. Throwing up once this morning was enough for today.

“Damn, Thor's wonder-brew really messed you two up, when Harley doesn't retort to being called dumb and Peter doesn't even want to hear about food.”

“Peter drank more than me.”

“Tattle tale much?” Of course Peter drank more, he didn't have a normal stomach. It probably evened out though, comparatively.

“I would like to ask you how the party went on, but I have the slight feeling that I might not get an answer.”

“Harley blacked out before I did.” Great, letting himself be pulled down to Harley's level.

“I am so incredibly proud of you both”, Tony deadpanned. “I’m heading over tidying up all the mess. I'd ask you to help, though I doubt that'd be of any use. Then again, it might bring back memories...”

Damnit, that could actually be the case. After being sure that the earth wasn't spinning, at least not more than it usually was, Peter got up and warily followed Tony. From the snoring, Harley was already asleep again.

“Sure you don't want to do like Harley? You look horrible and like you could do with some shut eye.”

“I'll live.”

“I should damn well hope so.” Tony put his arm around Peter. He smelled like toothpaste and apple; must have used Pepper's shampoo this morning. The heartbeat Peter could usually tone out was exhaustingly loud though, as were the footsteps echoing through Peter's head, thrumming with each step. Enhanced senses were already difficult enough to handle but being hungover, Tony's arm around Peter's shoulder felt like a vice.

“What happened after I left? Until blackout.”

“Well, we toasted with Loki and then we joined the dance for a while, eventually teaching Bucky and Thor the dance to Macarena. I chatted with Clint for a while, the big philosophical questions as you do and then Harley wanted to do the Dirty Dancing lift which of course went disastrous and then” _\- we kissed and slept together -_ “everything is gone.”

“Sounds like a fun time”, Tony smiled and opened the door for him.

“Tony! Peter!”, Thor greeted them with wide arms and his booming voice bounced around Peter's skull, the vibrations sending his hair to stand.

“Loud, please not”, Peter pressed out, massaging his temple hopeful it take a bit of the pain away.

“Please accept my sincerest apologies”, Thor whispered his apology.

“Of course. Any way we can help?”

“I think you should maybe just sit”, Nat remarked and even her almost silent steps were louder than any explosion. She gestured over at the couch where Clint was sprawled out with a cold pack over his face.

“I kinda wanna know what happened last night, though.”

“Of course you do”, she smirked, took Tony's place by Peter's side and walked him over to the couch, while Tony instrumented Dum-E on what to do. “What's the last thing you remember?”

“Dirty Dancing”, he sighed as he dropped down.

“Ah, that's what that was supposed to be. From our perspective you just ran at Harley, you guys crashed to the ground and after a bit you started yelling something about cake.”

“Yeah, that was Harley wanting to do the Dirty Dancing lift and please never ever use the c-word ever again.”

“I don't think I need to tell you what'll happen if you throw up on me”, Tasha made clear.

“I know, I know. So, I yelled about... you know”, he gulped-. “That's when things get dark.”

“Not much happened after that”, Nat shrugged. “After _you know_ , you were continuously laughing about something totally funny but didn't manage to explain what, just something to do with Harley. He just stared at you with wide eyes, which was a little weird, but that boy just isn't used to alien alcohol. And then I put him to bed”, she nodded at Clint, who just grunted, “before heading to my own, leaving only Thor and Loki. Though I doubt Loki remembers too much of last night either”, she chuckled.

That was alright though, because damn, it started coming back. The constant laughing about how funny it had been to kiss Harley. Thank the heavens Peter never managed to explain it to them.

“Thanks, Tasha”, he eventually mumbled.

“So, Thor's fancy beer worth your hangover?”

“I would love to say that I will never touch alcohol again, but I can guarantee that we'll be right back here next time that magic elixir is in reach.”

“That I believe. Right, get a bit of rest, we got this.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” After a probably skew grin, he trotted off to his room, intent on just falling on the bed and sleeping until that fucking hangover was dealt with. But as he walked along the corridor a similar image from last night came to him.

Since everybody else was going to bed, Harley and Peter went to their rooms as well; Harley was really weirdly quiet while Peter kept on giggling. They just arrived in front of Peter's room when he grinned: “It was so funny, can we do more of that?”

Harley just nodded and followed Peter into his room. They were at least present enough to close the door and keep anyone from accidentally watching as they leaned together. Harley put his arm around Peter's waist, pulled him close and their lips met. And all of a sudden it wasn't funny any more. It was passionate, hot and amazing. Peter wrapped himself around Harley and put a hand in his hair. Harley pushed him back and before he really realized it they fell onto the bed, never breaking away except when gasping for breath.

All of it came back to Peter, how Harley kissed along his jaw, his cheek, his neck how their clothes were all but ripped off and thrown across the room, how damn sexy Harley looked like that, and how amazing every single moment of being with Harley had felt.

Well, fuck.

Unfortunately it were more than fragments that came back to Peter as he trudged through his room with all the clothes laying around. The blue vest was in a corner, Peter remembered almost in detail how he unbuttoned it, how Harley’s muscles twitched underneath the fabric of his shirt. Peter's trousers had inexplicably landed on the chair, but upon seeing it, Peter couldn't help the memories flooding back: Harley pulling the trousers off and making his way back up by placing gentle kisses all along Peter's body; his stomach, his chest his neck before kissing Peter's lips again and again and again.

Falling on his bed, it felt almost empty with only the memory of Harley but not the guy himself. What was really weird was Peter kinda wanting to do that again, even though he wasn't into Harley. Normally he wasn't one to just jump into bed with whoever was around. Sure, he didn't dislike Harley as much as he let on and fine, that dude was pretty good looking, kinda hot actually.

Well, there was no reason for Peter to pretend he wasn't a human being and to deny that he deserved a little innocent fun eve now and then; especially while drunk off his mind. And with that thought in mind and a cold cloth on his forehead he dozed off easily enough.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Can we talk?”

After the dinner, where Peter even managed to eat a piece of bread without redecorating, Harley held him back.

“Sure”, Peter nodded, quite sure what Harley wanted to discuss. They decided to chat in Peter's room, so Harley could get his clothes back.

“Here.” Peter handed him the stack of clothes he had folded neatly in the meantime.

“Thanks. So... We're cool, right?”

“Sure we are”, Peter nodded. “We're both consenting adults and sure, we might not have been thinking that clearly, but for my part I'm good with it and not embarrassed or something. It might pain me to admit it, but you are attractive and admittedly quite good in bed and I'd advise you to savour this because this will be the last compliment about you to ever leave my lips.”

“Oh, that should eventually go on my tombstone: he was attractive and quite good in bed”, Harley snickered. “But, since we're being honest you can legally put the same things on your tombstone as well. You are hot, and the bits and pieces that are slowly but surely coming back to me make me come to the same conclusion.”

“Thanks”, Peter grinned, not once remembering being called hot. “So, we just gonna leave it at that.”

“Uhm, yeah”, Harley nodded. “I am not planning to go up to Tony or your aunt and telling them how good you are in bed and I assume you don't want that either.”

“Oh fuck no. They'll never ever have to find out about that. I mean between us. Just wanna make sure we're on the same page.”

“Well, I'm good with what happened, except for that wicked hangover. But I suppose I can't blame that on you, so...”

“No, you cannot, especially since I recall explicitly telling you to be careful with that stuff. But yeah, I'm good.”

“Good. Then everything is good.”

“Yeah. All good.”

By the number of times they kept repeating the word good, it should be more than clear enough that it wasn't good.

“It's not really good, is it?”, Harley asked carefully.

“It is, which is kind of the problem.” Well, Harley was clearly not following. “What I mean is that I remember most of last night and it was really fun. Look I'm not interested in you, in like a romantic sense. But...”

“Wait.” Harley seemed to have caught up with Peter's idea. “Do you want to be friends with benefits?”

“Yeah, I kinda wanna do that again”, Peter nodded, adding a hasty, “only if you want to of course.”

Harley just stared unmoving at Peter who dreaded more and more what he had set in motion. “I'd be into that”, Harley eventually grinned, “if only to be able to remember it.”

“Cool”, Peter grinned, almost immediately blushing for sounding so idiotic. But he was in a way. “How does this thing work? I mean, if one of us wants to, do we just... I don't know, message the other or...?” Wow, that wasn't awkward at all.

“Sure, let's do this booty-call-style.”

“Alright. And we'll always accept a no.”

“Always. And it'll stay between us, no involvement of the Avengers or Tony or anybody.”

“Don't worry, I most certainly will not tell anyone. So...”

“Wait, you don't want now, right?”

“Oh fuck no, if I move any more than necessary I'm gonna throw up again”, Peter groaned and dropped on his bed.

“Sounds about right”, Harley chuckled. “See you tomorrow, then.”

Well, that's out there now... This was going to be interesting.

  
  



	7. Chapter 7

“So what, is she a witch?”, Morgan munched with her mouth full of popcorn.

“Mary Poppins is so much more than that”, Peter made clear. “She is perfect in every way, effervescent and no category can truly hold her. And now shut it because this is the best part.”

“You already said that about five times since we started this movie.”

“Yeah, well, all of it is the best part! Oh, here we go...”

“And now he sings.”

“ _Eeeeeeeeh, supercallifragislisticexpialidocious, even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious...”_

“Dad, I am all for taking in strays, but how the hell did we end up with Peter?”, Morgan sighed turning to Tony.

“Oh, I didn't take him in, he literally annoyed his way into our home”, Tony scoffed.

“Not cool. Mr Stark, I'm basically doing your job by teaching Morgan about the important things in life, so don't you dare be this disrespectful.”

“You really did it”, Morgan chuckled, “he only calls you Mr Stark when you angered him.”

“He's not the only one, Miss Stark”, Peter turned to her. “You are learning the important facts of life now.”

“According to Ms Brenshaw, the facts of life have a little less to do with cartoon penguins and a little more with the birds and the bees. You still want to teach me the facts of life?”, she snickered.

“I would”, Peter shrugged, “but Dad over there is against us watching Dirty Dancing together.”

“Of course I'm against it, because...”

“Oh, shut up you guys, I wanna watch this”, Harley groaned and threw a pillow at Peter's head.

“Harley, the voice of reason and order? Right”, Peter rolled his eyes, “that's a new one.”

“Peter, trying to be clever and failing at it?”, Harley parroted, “not exactly a new one.”

“Ha, ha. At least I don't need to piggy back off off others' insults.”

“Oh, I'm not insulting you”, Harley smirked, “I'm just reporting facts.”

“Is that so?”

“Indeed.”

“For heaven's sake”, Tony and Morgan cried out at the same time. “Seriously guys”, Tony groaned, “shut up or get out.”

“You think you can managed that, Keener?”, Peter hissed over and couldn't help the grin.

“Parker, last warning. One more comment from either of you and you'll both be sent flying and I won't hesitate to use my blasters for that. So can we please go back on watching Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke dance with an animated fox?”

“You're an animated fox”, Peter and Harley mumbled in unison.

“Alright, that's it.” Tony pointed at the door, and chuckling, Peter and Harley got up, since neither of them was in the mood for being blasted; they both knew Tony well enough not to doubt his threat.

“So, you watch a Disney movie with your little sister and end up being kicked out for being inappropriate”, Harley summarized, as they walked along the corridor.

“That was your fault”, Peter made clear. “You were the one starting it.”

“So? You joined in.”

“Fair enough. What do we do then?”

“I don't... Well.” With a smirk, Harley turned to Peter and suggestively wiggled his eyebrows.

“What, now?”

“Come on”, he grinned and pulled Peter behind him.

“Fine, you convinced me”, he grinned and followed Harley into his room. Hell, who was he kidding, there wasn't any convincing necessary; Harley had him at _Well..._

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Aren't you going to join us tonight then?”

“Sorry, kid”, Rhodey shrugged, “army dinner and it's mandatory. Trust me, I'd much more prefer to be part of the Mario Cart tournament.”

“That's alright, next time then?”

“Sure thing, kiddo”, Rhodey smiled and patted his shoulder.

“Awesome. Right then, let me get back to the board and redraft the tournament”, Peter sighed and went back to his room. Without Rhodey in the mix, the whole balance of Peter's carefully crafted game plan went down the toilet. Which sucked majorly, since Peter worked forever on it and now only had an hour to fix it again. The others thought Peter only drew their names randomly on who played against each other but it only took one game night for him to learn about the serious insecurities and competitiveness of the Avengers. And that is why Peter paired the first round up according to their abilities, meaning that Clint, who was quite good, couldn't be paired with Steve, who sucked. Rhodey was part of the lower part consisting of Steve, Tony Happy, Rhodey and weirdly Vision. Wanda, Sam, Bruce and Pepper were passable, and the top was comprised of Nat, Clint, Harley, Morgan, Scott and Bucky. Peter was one of the best as well. If Rhodey couldn't make it, the whole system fell apart, meaning that one person couldn't play along if they didn't want to upset the order.

“Hey Peter”, Harley chirped, putting his head through Peter's door. “Whatcha doing?”

“Sorting this Mario Cart business”, Peter groaned.

“That sounds awfully dreary... Maybe there's something better to do...” Harley leaned against Peter's back, brushing his hands down Peter's chest.

“Dude, how can you think about sex right now? This is an absolute crisis! How the hell does Rhodey only tell me now about this stupid army dinner? Doesn't he know how much freaking work I put into this fucking tournament?”

“Because we're in your bedroom and you're hot. And about the Rhodey issue... As far as I know, talking as one of the top competitors, the reason he doesn't know about all your work is because the losers will be pissed if they knew about it. And besides, now the bottom and middle group even out”, Harley shrugged, pointing it out to Peter.

“Yeah, but now we're one too many here on top. We don't even out anymore so one of us can't play.”

“Or we get someone else to play. How about your aunt?”

“Not May, you know how I get. I am not having my aunt watching me calling Clint a little bitch.”

“The how about you call up Shuri? Or Spider-Man? Not gonna lie, I'm dying to find out who's underneath these spandex.”

Oh. Right. That secret.

“I got The Human Torch's number”, he shrugged.

.

**Peter:** hey flameo, wanna join the Avengers MarioCart tournament tonight?

**Flamebrains:** sounds fun

**Flamebrains:** when?

**Peter:** 6pm

**Flamebrains:** I'll be there *thumbs up*

.

“Awesome, Johnny's gonna join us. That means Vision'll go up against Happy, Bucky will play Sam, which is going to be interesting and probably only mildly dangerous and Johnny can play Scott.”

“Crisis averted. And look, we got forty-nine minutes left until we need to be there. My, what could we possibly do to fill that time?”, Harley smirked and went back to brushing over Peter's chest, which was only slightly hot.

But Peter wasn't going to let anything on. “Well, I am going to take a shower”, he explained, wriggled out of Harley's hold and strutted into his bathroom, half-expecting Harley to follow. Which he didn't. Only when he was just about to get into the shower, he put his head back through the door. “You gonna join me or what?”

“That was not funny, you really had me going there for a moment!”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“All hail her, the queen of Mario Kart”, Peter announced and bowed to Morgan. “I am truly humbled as the runner up to bestow you with the cloak of majesty and the deserved title of reigning champion until the next tournament.”

“Thank you, dear Peter, the defeated”, she grinned, not even trying to suppress her pride.

“Make no mistake, milady”, he hissed, “your reign won't last forever.”

“Alright”, Tony clapped. “At least a Stark won.”

“You're just pissed you're second to last”, Harley grinned.

“Shut it, Keener. Now, let's get to the victory cake because a certain Queen and reigning Champion has a bedtime.”

“Shut up, Dad! I'm the boss for now and I decree: LET THEM EAT CAKE!”

“Works for me”, Johnny chuckled and the real party started.

Peter was already on his third piece, when Bucky patted him on the shoulder. “I'm sorry I called you a scrawny little insect.”

“That's alright”, Peter grinned. “Sorry, for calling you a senile, old geyser, who is long past his due date.”

“I mean, you weren't wrong”, he laughed. “103 isn't exactly spring chicken.”

“Well, I can appreciate your experience”, Steve smirked and kissed Bucky's cheek.

“And that is where I leave the conversation.” With a smile, Peter turned around, doing his all to suppress his shudder.

“Need a saviour?”, Johnny grinned, coming up to his side.

“Wow, what would I do if I didn't have you to save me?”, Peter deadpanned and punched Johnny's side as hard as his spider-powers let him without drawing any suspicion.

“Alright, I got it, you're a strong, independent Avenger, you don't need no Torch.”

“Would you shut it, please?”, he hissed back, “not everybody here knows about that.”

“Right, your _friend_...”

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“That tone.” Peter wasn't sure what Johnny was insinuating, but there was something he was driving at. “What are you going for?”

“Come on”, Johnny groaned, “you and Harley are clearly doing it. Question remaining: is it friends with benefits or more? By the shade of pink you're turning the first.”

“Would you please keep it down? Seriously, you intent on blowing all my secrets tonight?”

“Nah, not tonight, not as long as little sister is around. Don't want to scar that kid for life.”

“Thanks, I guess... But yeah, kinda a friendship+, purely casual thing. It's fun, Harley's good-looking and why not”, Peter shrugged.

Johnny just held up his arms in defence. “Dude, you don't have to defend your actions. If you're happy, I'm happy and I'm especially happy you're getting some. It's been pretty sad...”

“Shut up, it wasn't that bad.”

“Sure, sweetheart, keep telling yourself that”, Johnny patted his shoulder with the most patronizing chuckle and, before Peter could retort, he just wiggled his eyebrows, got up and walked away.

“What's his deal?”, Harley asked and Johnny walking away made suddenly a lot more sense as he came up behind him.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Peter turned to Harley who held out a plate of cake with a crooked, quite cute, smile. “Thanks. That would be my fourth piece though.”

“Please, who's counting? Besides, you got some wondrous metabolism, because you can eat without end and still look like that.”

“I know I'm hot”, Peter smirked and gladly enjoyed another slice.

“Especially after watching you take on Nat in the semifinals earlier. Which is why you're welcome to come by my room later.”

“Again today? Huh, I really am hot.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“So, let me recap. We are just sitting around, discussing Superman, when you all of a sudden, without any prompting take off my shirt and here we are.”

“Good summary”, Peter giggled and tousled Harley's hair. “I wouldn't call it unprompted though, your hand was everywhere except the comic book.”

“How about we call it mutual unpromtedness?”

“Unpromptedness? Wow, your knowledge of grammar and grasp of language are such a turn-on”, Peter deadpanned, pushed Harley off his lap and made for the pile of clothes on the ground.

“Hey, where are you going? I'm not done being cuddled yet!”

“But I think I just established that I'm no longer turned on by you”, Peter shrugged and pulled his shirt over his head.

“As if”, he scoffed and rolled out the other side of the bed. “Since we are both in total agreement that I am the hottest person to ever cross your way – and yes, I am including the Human Torch – you already got any plans on Friday?”

“Sounds like I'm about to. What's happening?”

“Nothing special, just wanna get a drink. What do you think?”

“Sounds good to me.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“How was your evening with Harley?”, May greeted Peter when he walked into the apartment.

“Such a wonderful evening”, Peter blurted out. “Sorry, I'm really tired, see you tomorrow.”

Feeling his aunt's concerned stares at the back of his mind, Peter just hurried as fast as possible into his room without weirding May out any more. And, as soon as in the safety of his room, Peter just sank down the wall with a deep sigh all the strength left his body.

This was impossible. It just was. How the hell did they end up there? That was not just going for drinks, he and Harley just were on a date. A real date.

And it was actually nice. Really nice. As usual they joked and teased each other, but the flirting was kind of obvious. It wasn't playful ribbing any more, it was actually flirting, it was nice and it was even kinda romantic. That was the exact problem: Peter and Harley weren't in a romantic relationship, things were purely physical and there were no feelings involved, other than friendship. They didn't go on dates, they just had sex and not just sex but secret sex. Because if they went on dates, they would be a couple and would have to tell everybody. And then they would have to do coupley stuff. Like go on more dates. And hold hands, and kiss and hug and kiss some more and cuddle while watching a movie and dance to romantic music and kiss his cheek and make googly eyes and sit on his lap and lace their fingers together...

Oh.

_Oh._

Well, fuck.


	8. Chapter 8

“What do you mean, you can't tonight?”, Harley moped.

“I told you, I've got dinner plans with my aunt”, Peter lied, hoping Harley would just leave it at that.

“Yeah, but I finally figured out how to spy on an Avengers meeting but I need your help to pull it off.”

“Harley, I know I'm smarter than you but I can't tonight.” Since Peter was part of the top-secret meeting he couldn't have Harley crash it. But, knowing him the way he did, Peter should best wear his suit tonight, given that Harley was going to try and get in there no matter how. And then he would find out that Peter had lied and lied to him. And then he'd be angry and wouldn't want to hang with Peter any more, which would really suck. Not just because sleeping together was fun, but ever since their date two weeks ago (fine, 12 days ago, but who was counting?) things have been nice. Really nice. It felt like they were maybe on a way to a more serious relationship and that would be nice. There was no other word to describe the warm fuzzy feeling in Peter's chest when he was around Harley. There was no better word for the gentle buzz in his brain when Harley joked or said or did anything. It was all just so nice. And if Peter wasn't such a coward and would just tell Harley about all these feelings, then it might be even nicer, maybe even really good, bordering on fantastic.

But there were too many secrets, Peter didn't even deserve the nice feeling.

“You're a damn spoilsport. But fine, I'll go ask Morgan”, he pouted, jumped off Peter's bed and trotted off slowly enough for Peter to have more than enough chances to stop him and agree to partake in his adventure.

But Peter wouldn't do that. Instead he just called after Harley: “better make sure your idea is foolproof, otherwise Tony will kill you for dragging his beloved angel daughter to the dark side.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey kid, why in uniform?”, Clint asked when Peter, in full spider-attire, walked into the meeting room.

“I look as I should”, Peter just shot back, endlessly glad that nobody could see him blush under this mask. “This is an official meeting and I am in official clothing.”

“Since when do you care about official?”, Tony snorted, falling on a chair.

“Ever since you met me”, Peter recalled. “Official SI intern, official Avenger... That was all my effort.”

“Yeah, I got the point. But this is the first time you've shown up to a meeting in your suit. Wait.” Tony leaned over the table to closer inspect Peter sitting opposite him. “You know something.” With narrowed eyes he stared holes into what was probably Peter's soul.

“I know a lot of things.”

“Don't change the subject. Something's up and you know about it, that's why you're prepared. I feel a prank coming up. Don't suppose Harley has anything to do with it since he doesn't know who you are. Unless...”

“Unless what?”, Nat asked, more out of courtesy than anything else, as she kept on looking at her phone.

“Harley wants to sneak into a meeting, he's been trying ever since he got here. Now I assume that he asked Pete here to join him for his attack and that's why you're all covered up so if he succeeds you don't have to reveal anything.” With a self-satisfied smirk, Tony leaned back in his seat. “Am I right or am I right?”

“You don't know the whole story”, Peter just mumbled, not wanting to give Tony the satisfaction of having read Peter's face while Peter wore a damn mask. “I said no, so he's trying to enlist your spawn.”

“Figured. He knows the penalty, so if he dares, he'll have to pay.”

“Why don't you just tell him?”, Rhodey asked, before Tony could start his speech about what will happen to whoever dared and used his daughter for their more or less evil schemes.

“Because it's gone too far already”, Bucky answered for Peter.

“The longer you wait, the harder it's gonna be though.”

“I know that. Just let me deal with it and can we please get started on the meeting?”

“Fine. So, first order of business.”

As soon as Steve started talking, Peter dialled his senses up, tried to listen for any little rustle in a vent, behind the door or maybe even hiding behind a plant or the curtains. But there was nothing out of the ordinary. There were too many heartbeats in this room for Peter to distinguish if any were out of place here, but there weren't any steps or hushed whispers between Harley and Morgan either.

“That covers it. Dismissed.” Steve's loud voice and Tony's accompanied banging on the table brought Peter back into the real world where he missed the entire meeting. Whoops. He could get the important information from FRIDAY later, that wasn't the problem; he just hoped he didn't agree to anything without realizing he was doing so.

“You have no idea what we just talked about, do you?”, Nat whispered, only Peter with his spider-hearing could pick up on it. As answer he just shrugged.

“Thought so”, she snickered. “Don't worry, you didn't miss a lot. On Steve's inspirational scale I give today's speech a 4 tops.”

“Then I'm glad”, he chuckled, sitting down next to her as everybody else had filed out of the room.

“So, you wanna talk about it?”

“About what?”

“About Harley. And why you don't want your paramour to find out about your alter ego.”

“My what now?” Oh shit, Nat knew. It wasn't that surprising, she was a damn spy and incredibly intuitive especially were interpersonal relationships were concerned, all that more so than the other Avengers.

“Come on, kid. You can't tell me that you and Harley haven't been hooking up.” Feeling her stare burning a hole into his mask, he eventually took it off. “Don't worry, Stark has no idea his wards are doing it.”

“Better that way, don't need him to have a heart attack and disown us.”

“I'd say a mental breakdown about his sweet little Pete doing such unspeakable things is more probable”, Nat laughed. “That's not your problem. What Steve said earlier was right, though. The longer you keep it secret the worse it's gonna blow up once Harley finds out.”

“I know”, he sighed and leaned against her shoulder. “I'm scared though.”

“And that I get.” She put her arm around Peter's shoulder. “But Harley has the right to react how he will react which is why you can't use his reaction as an excuse for not telling him.”

“Damnit, why you gotta be so smart”, Peter grumbled once her speech sunk in. “Fine, I'll probably should do it asap.”

“And there is no time like the present.” Harley's voice was probably not as loud as it felt to Peter as it echoed through his head but shit. This was not how this was supposed to go and all he could do now was hope that it ended a lot better than it began.

Nat just nodded at Peter and patted Harley's shoulder before almost silently slipping out of the room, closing the door behind her and, in doing so, leaving Peter eye to eye with Harley. He just stood there completely still, rigid as a statue, his face hard and as hard as he tried, he couldn't read Harley's emotions.

“So, I'm Spider-Man.”

“Oh, really”, he rolled his eyes. Sarcasm, that was to be expected.

“I'm really sorry I never told you.”

“So? Sorry doesn't erase the last few months.”

“I don't want to erase our time together”, Peter made clear and walked up to Harley, stopping just short of reaching out to him.

“But it wasn't real, was it?”

“Of course it was real. Why does anything about our friendship or whatever we are change because of Spider-Man?”

“Everything does!”, Harley cried out. “You lied to me for months. How am I supposed to know what of what you said was true and what was real?”

“The only times I lied was when I went on patrol. And that is it.”

“And how the hell am I supposed to believe that?”

“Guess it boils down to you trusting me on that.”

“Right”, Harley snorted, “trust you.” He turned once more, probably to hide his face, but not quick enough; Peter saw his face falling into hurt and just racked his brain for the right words to fill the heavy silence, to find the best things to say that would make him feel better, to take a bit of the hurt and betrayal away. But before he got the chance to do that, Harley turned again, his face rock hard as he scoffed: “Definitely explains a lot...”

“What does it explain?”

“How you made it here.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah”, he shrugged, the hurt having made way for pure defiance. “No wonder you're Tony's golden boy.”

“Ok, you lost me. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Peter didn't like where this headed, none of the 7206 hypothetical scenarios Peter had played through in his mind had gone this way and he was dead-sure that whatever Harley was about to say was gonna hurt more than being beaten up by Doc Ock.

“Your friendly little superhero routine. Sucking up does work out, doesn't it?”

This couldn't be right, Peter definitely just misunderstood what Harley insinuated. “I don't deserve being part of SI, of the Avengers, of the Stark-family, is that what you're saying?”

All he got in return was a shrug. “I worked for my position. You got bit by a spider. One is perseverance, the other is sheer luck. You do the maths.”

He didn't mean that, he couldn't mean that. “Are you serious right now?”

“Am I laughing?”

“Listen, Harley, I'm really sorry about the lies and secrets, but you have no idea what you're talking about here.”

“Well, who's fault is that, huh?” His arms crossed, Harley stared Peter down, and he just wanted to make himself as small and as unnoticeable as possible.

“You're right, that's my fault. And I'll regret that for a pretty damn long time. But you saying I don't deserve my powers or my place in this world, that's...”

“That's what? Cruel, bad, brutal, vicious, painful? Yeah, it might be, but it's also the truth. Tony wouldn't have picked you up from your intelligence alone; if it weren't for your spider-powers, he wouldn't even know you existed. So the one thing that brought you here, that was sheer luck, a coincidence that had nothing to do with your intelligence or smarts or whatever.”

“Well, if you really think that, then I should probably go.” It took all Peter had to sound somewhat collected even though he just wanted to ball himself together and cry all of these feelings out. Not trusting his voice to say anything else, Peter strutted right past Harley and walked out, left the compound behind as he swung towards home and the calming embrace of his aunt.


	9. Chapter 9

**Tony:** Hey kid, Pepper just told me you're out sick?

**Tony:** What's wrong?

**Tony:** Since you can't get sick, did you get hurt?

**Tony:** Do you need anything?

**Tony:** Can I do something for you?

**Peter:** I'm not hurt

**Peter:** Just need a day

**Peter:** that ok?

**Tony:** Of course that's ok

**Tony:** tell me if you need anything

**Tony:** take care, kid

**Peter:** thanks <3

.

That was sweet. The way Tony cared about Peter was something wonderful and probably not deserved. Damnit, Harley's words stuck with Peter, he couldn't get them out of his head. Was it true? Was the only reason he had made it to where he was the fact that he had powers?

“Hey”, May smiled and put her head through Peter's bedroom door. “Can I come in?”

“Sure”, he answered, but stayed where he was, laying on the bed, staring at the weirdly shaped stain on his ceiling.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nope.”

“Alright. If you change your mind, I'm here for you. Always.”

“Thanks.”

And then Peter was alone with his thoughts. That was never a good thing, especially when Peter's thoughts were negative, bordering on self-destructive. He had to sort this thought mess out by himself, though. Especially if he was to face Harley again, something unavoidable given that they both work and kind of live at the compound.

Peter deserved that. Yes, the fact that he was bitten by that spider was a coincidence and yes, without the ensuing powers Tony wouldn't have known about Peter. But everything that happened afterwards? That was Peter's doing. Using his powers to help the neighbourhood, that was Peter's decision. Taking down the Vulture, that was Peter without any of the fancy Stark tech. And if Tony wouldn't like Peter the way he did, Peter wouldn't be part of his family.

Besides, Peter paid his dues. Harley had no idea what Peter had to go through, losing Mum, Dad, Uncle Ben, fighting aliens, fighting crazy super-villains that wanted Peter dead for no other reason that he was Spider-Man. He has had to lock up his best friend for crying out loud, after Harry decided to take over the evil Green Goblin-reigns from his dad. Peter's life was seriously fucked up and he was not going to let Harley take the best thing Peter ever was lucky enough to be a part of away.

Of course Harley deserved to be hurt, to be bitter, Peter did lie. But there was no arguing that he went too far with his stupid accusation and Peter was not going to let himself be bullied out of his weird super-family.

How the hell could Peter ever fall for a guy like that? He had seemed like a great guy but add a little trouble to the mix and Harley starts playing dirty and punches well below the belt. Everything that attracted Peter only two days ago was overshadowed by his vicious words.

No way Peter was innocent in all this, he was well aware of that and lying to Harley was something Peter would regret for a long while to come. Maybe if he would have told Harley sooner about his powers, things wouldn't have ended that horribly. Back, when there were no feelings involved, it would have probably been easier to confess and to deal with either. Then again, ifs, buts, and whatnots won't change what happened. Peter had messed up, Harley had shown his true colours and things between them were over; that's just how things had happened.

Only thing Peter could control was how this disaster would turn out, starting by not letting it eat Peter up. And there was no way in hell, Peter was going to let Harley push him out of SI, out of the compound and out of the Stark's and the Avenger's lives.

  
  


* * *

  
  


It was certainly weird to be back in the lab with Tony and Harley. After it had been so relaxed and even fun these last few months, it now was weirdly tense again. Tony probably suffered most under the tension; Peter worked happily on his birthday present for Morgan (a light-up clock in the shape of Gerald the Alpaca) and Ben the Robot really was the only help Peter needed. What Harley did (building a motor bike from scrap) Peter didn't really care about and definitely didn't pay him any attention, definitely not. Harley returned that favour which left Tony in the middle, caught between two each other ignoring men.

“Any of you wanna tell me what happened?”

“Nope.”

“Not really”, Peter shrugged without looking up.

“Lucky me”, Tony grumbled and, from the sounds of it, went back to his gauntlet. As far as Peter could tell there was absolutely nothing wrong with it and Tony's screwing with it was about as useful as stirring a pot of water to get it to boil. That could only mean that Peter and Harley's arguing gnawed on Tony a lot, especially being in the middle of it and though he would love to flee this situation he was probably worried about his lab and the two if he left them unsupervised.

There was nothing Peter would or wanted to do about it at the moment though. He deserved to be here just as much as Harley did and as much as he hated to put Tony in this weird middle-man-situation, that's just how things would be for the time being.

So that's how things went on. Peter worked on his projects, pretending not to notice Harley, when in reality he always kept him in view through the corner of his eyes. Not that he was especially proud of it, but Peter couldn't help it. Just because he didn't like Harley, it didn't mean that he didn't think him attractive any more. Some days, when Harley decided to show up in a white tank top and was soon enough covered in grease and stuff... Peter was only human and he couldn't help remembering what Harley looked like underneath all that motor oil.

No, no, no. Peter had to shut that shit down. Right. Fucking. Now. It didn't matter that the tank top Harley wore was tight, it didn't matter that his pants highlighted his backside in the best possible way. It didn't matter that this oily, sweaty, hair-hanging-in-his-face-ruggedness was seriously hot, it didn't matter how nicely his muscles flexed when he lifted something heavy, it all didn't matter.

Because no matter how much Peter wanted to rip that top off Harley or how much he wanted to run his hands all over that body; it was nothing but a momentary lapse of judgement. In these moments there was only one thing he could do: flee.

“Well”, he cleared his throat, “this city isn't gonna save itself.”

“But you are?”, Harley scoffed and Peter decided it'd be best to disregard it.

“Sure thing, kiddo”, Tony nodded, ignoring Harley's comment as well. “Call me if you need a hand, alright?”

“I will”, Peter nodded and, after pointedly waving at his father figure but not Harley, he turned, walked out, got changed and swung through the city.

He was most probably not going to need Tony's help; if Peter remembered correctly, Johnny was on the Four's monitor duty and one conveniently placed web was enough to get the Torch on his trail.

“Hey webs. Howzit hanging?”, Johnny greeted him when he landed next to Peter on the Statue of Liberty's crown.

“Upside down, as usual”, he grinned back. “How're you?”

“Flaming hot, as usual. Oh, btdubs, Sue says hi.”

“Thanks. Well, if I told Tony that we'd hang out, he would have said something along the lines of 'don't let him drag you to the dark side'.”

“Duly noted”, Johnny giggled. “Still thinks I'm a bad influence, huh?”

“Is he wrong?”, Peter smirked and just in time dodged the punch that was headed his way. “Apparently not.”

“Whatever... So, the twins asked about you over breakfast this morning and they want to know if you're stronger than Ben.”

“Huh.” Children always asked the best questions. “I have no idea, but now I really want to find out.”

“Figured. I'm obviously totally on your side.”

“Obviously.”

“But Reed makes some compelling arguments for Ben. So...”

“So we're heading to Baxter Building right now so I can proof Reed wrong!”, Peter cried out and jumped up. “Please give me a lift over the water because we are not waiting for the next ferry.”

“Yes sir”, Johnny laughed and off they flew.

  
  


“SPIDEY!”, Valeria cried out and tackle-hugged Peter, giving him barely a chance to land.

“Hey Val”, he grinned.

“He's here for the experiment”, Johnny explained.

“You mean the one we talked about during breakfast?” Her eyes went as big as plates as she looked from Peter to Johnny.

“He just told me about it”, Peter nodded. “And I figured we should find out, right?”

“AAAAH!”, she just squealed and ran into the loft. “DAD! FRANKIE! UNCLE BEN!”

That only hurt a little bit, hearing her calling for Uncle Ben. And, though Peter knew it, seeing Ben Grimm, The Thing, turn the corner and not Peter's Uncle Ben Parker was always crushing his soul just that tiny bit.

“What's going on? Oh, hey Spidey”, Ben greeted him. “What a funny coincidence, we just talked about you during breakfast.”

“I know. And I heard that some _thing_ thinks he's stronger than me.” His cockily raised eyebrow would probably look better without his mask on, so pulling it off he shot Ben the most challenging stare Peter could muster up.

“I mean”, Ben shrugged, grinning ever so slightly, “my powers come from space. You ever been up there?”

“Yes”, Peter nodded, “I kinda died there, so...”

“Aw shit, sorry.” If he had the ability to do so, Ben would have probably turned beet-red.

“Yeah, let's maybe table the trash talk for now, since you both suck at it”, Johnny threw in. “Come on, lets look for Franklin; he and Valeria got the experiment all figured out.”

“Knowing their parents I have not a single doubt”, Peter grinned and, to let him know that everything was cool, he put his arm around Ben's shoulders.

“Hello Peter, thank you for taking part in our experiment”, Franklin greeted him; already in lab gear and helping Val into what were probably Reed and Sue's labcoats, given that they were quite a bit too big for the twins.

“Good afternoon”, Peter smiled, “I am so happy that you posed this interesting scientific query; I never even thought about it and I am incredibly curious to see what happens.”

“As am I”, Ben agreed.

“Good. We have prepared a series of tests and experiments since strength is layered in a plurality. There is the strength of the arms, of the legs and of the gluteus maximus”, Franklin beamed proudly, knowing such big words as plurality and gluteus maximus.

Peter just wasn't sure whether the kids knew what that last one meant. “Sounds good to me. But, since he's not as smart as us, you should probably explain to Johnny what gluteus maximus is.”

“Thank you, Peter”, Johnny deadpanned. “How would I survive in this world if I didn't have you explaining those crazy complicated and difficult words to me?”

“The gluteus maximus is the muscle”, Valeria explained without looking up from the doodles that were indubitably their protocols.

“It's... the muscle?”

“Yes”, Franklin sighed at his uncle's cluelessness, “it's the muscle.”

“Didn't you listen, Johnny?”, Peter shot over, “it's the muscle.”

“Haha”, he rolled his eyes.

“Alright, we are set. Since we need to be neutral, we have no hypotenuses.”

“No hypotenuses, that seems fair”, Ben nodded, biting down his grin.

“Indeed. So our first experiment is arm-wrestling.” Val pointed at the dinner table and with a shrug Peter and Ben followed her gestures.

“I don't want to fold before the game, but I'm gonna go ahead and assume that you are a lot stronger than me and that the Avenger you should battle it out with is Hulk”, Peter mumbled, once he and Ben sat across from each other.

“What's your record?”

“When adrenaline's high I can lift maybe 50 tons”, Peter estimated.

“That's...”

“If you say cute, I will end you”, Peter grumbled. “And I don't care you're immortal or whatever, I'll find a way.”

“I was gonna say impressive”, Ben raised his arms in defence. “You're a scrawny kid, weighing probably no more than my left hand so that is sensational.”

“Thanks. What's your top lift?”

“I don't know”, he shrugged. “Obviously Reed experimented like crazy on me once we first got our powers, and he still does, including testing my strength, but I might have broken his scale...”, he admitted with what was probably his rocky version of a meek grin.

“Oh. I assume this scale did not stop at around 50 tons.”

“It did not.”

“Figured. Well”, he fake-smiled, “this should be fun then.”

“We are all set up”, Valeria declared. “On your positions. On my command you start. Ready, steady... GO!”

Ben was holding back, clearly. Giving all his strength, Peter managed to keep their hands somewhat locked and centred. “Dude, you're falsifying results”, Peter hissed through clenched teeth.

“Yes, I am sure that two third-graders will change the world with their scientific method”, Ben mumbled back. “But I know they're rooting for you, even if they pretend to be completely scientifically objective.”

“That's awesome, but no reason to fake an outcome.”

“Come on, Parker, let's give those kids some exciting results.” With his last mumble, Ben eased up enough for Peter to slowly but surely win this round.

“Thank you gentlemen.” And after a smile, Franklin and Valeria disappeared in their research.

“He let you win, didn't he”, Johnny commented as he pulled up a chair to the test subjects.

“He did”, Peter nodded. “Reed might have a point with these reasons why I got nothing on Rocky.”

“I wouldn't say nothing”, Ben threw in.

“Don't worry, I don't really have an ego you need to look out for”, Peter grinned and, just before Johnny could make a comment about that, Val and Frankie skipped back.

“That was a very interesting first round. We'll have some more arm-wrestling so our results are quantablified and then we do a different experiment.”

And that's how it continued. After five rounds of arm-wrestling, they decided to have Ben win 3-2. Same with the pulling-rope-experiment, the holding-heavy-stuff-over-your-head-experiment and the ripping-phone-books-in-half-experiment. Ben always let Peter get close, though to get somewhat reliable results he was in the end the one to pull the win.

Johnny constantly cheering for Peter was pretty cool, the best part was watching Val and Frankie pen down every little thing they noticed. Each probably went through an entire notepad, writing down scores, how long it took to score and even sketching the scene.

After the last book was ripped, they thanked Peter and Ben for their participation and explained how they now had to retreat into their laboratory to process the results, leaving Ben, Peter and Johnny in the living room.

“I'm really excited to finally find out what their results are”, Johnny giggled as he handed out a beer to each of them.

“Not as much of a nail-biter as I'd hoped it'd be, but still”, Peter grinned. “Was a pretty awesome way to spend the afternoon.” It really was, it was fun and took Peter's mind off things.

“That it was. And you, Peter, really are a good competitor. It'd probably be fun to go up against you when your adrenaline's all up.”

“Sure, you just gotta bury me underneath a collapsed building”, Peter shrugged and took a sip.

“Damn.”

“Yeah... Worst homecoming ever.”

“Omigod, now I want to wrap you in a fuzzy blanket, rock you on my lap and tell you everything'll be alright.”

“Thanks, Ben. It's all cool, though.”

“No, it's not”, Johnny rolled his eyes, “your private life is a joke. It was then and it is now.”

“That's not fair”, Peter defended himself.

“Yes, it is.” For weeks Johnny had urged Peter to talk these issues with Harley out but Peter was not having any of it.

“And even if it is, it's my business and not yours and that's it.” Peter turned back to Ben, who looked from Peter to Johnny with the widest eyes. “It's all good.”

“If you say so...”

“We have resulted.” Franklin's announcement pulled all their attention and let Peter's relationship issues gracefully fade into the background.

“And we have concluded that you are both really strong.”

“But who is stronger?”, Johnny asked.

“Physically, Ben is a bit stronger, but Peter is emotionally strong, so you're both really strong”, Valeria explained their results.

“A tie, then”, Ben summarized and smiled at Peter.

“That sounds wonderful”, he beamed at the twins. “And it is an honour to be as strong as The Fantastic Thing.”

“Not half as much as tying with The Amazing Spider-Man.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Not that Valeria and Franklin's experiment the other day really granted any scientifically accurate conclusion, Peter was still really proud of having tied with The Thing and definitely had his head held higher; no matter whether he was at work, at home or swung through the city. A behaviour the people closest to him notice.

“Aren't you chipper”, Steve remarked over apple pie, as Peter all but skipped through the Avenger's kitchen.

“I hadn't noticed”, he feigned innocence and got a juice box out of the fridge. He didn't care that he was 25, juice boxes were still awesome.

“Please”, Clint groaned, “either you scored a major win or you scored in the X-rated sense.”

“Nah”, Nat shook her head. “He didn't get laid. And it's nothing job-related and hasn't anything to do with Spider-Man as well.”

“Damn”, the guys wondered. “You're powers of deduction and reading people are seriously scary”, Bucky remarked.

“Thanks”, she grinned. “So, what's up?”

“It's nothing big”, Peter waved it off, “I was at Baxter Building the other day, spending the afternoon with Val and Frankie trying to figure out who's stronger: me or The Thing. And, even though Ben can lift so much more than me, because of my emotional strength we tied.”

“Aw”, Clint cooed, “that's adorable!”

“It is. Next they want to pit The Thing against Hulk. Haven't figured out how to break that to Bruce yet”, Peter gulped.

“Since it's in the interest of scientific interest, I'm sure he'll at least consider it.”

“How's the other project going?”, Nat changed the subject.

“You mean Operation Venom?”

“Damnit, why do you all know about that?”, Peter groaned. “Seriously, this place gossips worse than any high school.”

“Don't change the subject. What's up?”

“Nothing”, Peter shrugged. And it was the truth. There was absolutely nothing between him and Harley, except for a certain level of animosity.

“That we know”, Steve nodded, “Tony's a wreck.”

“Don't guilt-trip me”, Peter interrupted the Avengers moping on Tony's behalf. “That is between me and Harley and I know this sucks for Tony but it's not his issue.”

“Is it, though?”

“Dude, after Germany and Siberia, you're the last person who can tell me that I'm screwing over Tony”, Peter scoffed at Steve, who immediately blushed deep red and sunk in his chair. “Besides, I'm a grown-up myself now.”

“I feel like 'grown' is a bit of an exaggeration”, came Harley's voice from the door.

“Excuse me?” Peter turned to Harley, who had his 'challenge-accepted' eyebrow raised.

“Sorry, let me explain it to you”, he fake-smiled, taking two steps towards Peter and leaned down in the most patronizing way. “I'm saying you're small.”

“And yet I could still kick your ass from here to LA”, Peter shot back.

“Oh, this is gonna be good”, he heard Clint snicker.

“You got popcorn?”, Nat whispered back, but the gossiping Avengers didn't matter. Harley, revving his engines for the comeback, that mattered now.

“Then let me thank you in advance for the free air fare. Think you should go there, though, get a bit of sun because you look like you were pulled out of the river.”

“Oh, snap!”, Bucky giggled, getting a punch to the arm in return.

“It's called skin á la Snow White. But of course you wouldn't know that; that book is reading level 5 after all.”

“So now I can't read”, Harley rolled his eyes. “Really, given the brightly coloured suit you run around in, I actually expected better insults from you, you insect.”

“Arachnid”, Peter corrected him.

“Huh?”

“Arachnid”, Peter repeated, trying to sound as patronizing as he could. “Spider's aren't insects they're arachnids. If you want to insult me, please to so correctly.”

“Are they still fighting or are they tutoring each other?”, Bucky commented, looking from one to the other.

“Dude, I don't need commentary from someone who's so old he only uses Viagra to keep from rolling out of bed”, Harley scoffed and for a moment that seemed eternally long, nobody in the room moved, breathed or made a sound.

Until Peter burst out laughing, loud and heartily. This was the type of sassy comebacks and comments Harley was so good at and, even though they sometimes tended to hit below the belt, they were usually really funny.

Wait, fuck. Peter couldn't laugh at Harley's burns, he didn't like him right now! As soon as that realization hit Peter he clasped his hands in front of his mouth and bit down any urge to laugh some more at Harley's comment or at how Bucky just stared at the young adults with his jaw on the ground.

“Great”, Harley chirped, grinning at Peter, “guess I won.”

“You might have won the battle, Keener”, Peter made clear, but couldn't keep the grin and the feeling that maybe something was on a making-up path down any more. “But make no mistake, I will win this war.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey.”

Turning towards his bedroom's door, Peter saw Harley leaning against the frame shooting him a smile. It was a warm smile, reassuring and not even a bit of a mischievous glint shone through.

“Come in”, he waved and Harley followed the invitation. “What's up?”

“I need to apologize.” There was no waver in Harley's voice as he kept his eyes locked with Peter. “I really overstepped and in my frustration I said some bullshit that's really not true and I am so sorry.”

That was the last thing, Peter had expected to hear from Harley and for a moment or two, Peter just stared at him, trying to compute it all.

“Anyways”, he shrugged, blushing ever so slightly. “That's all I wanted to say. Guess I'll see you...”

“No, wait”, Peter interrupted him. “Thank you. That means the world to me.” And that was no exaggeration. “I am sorry, too. Never telling you about Spider-Man... That wasn't cool. You being hurt and pissed and shit, all that was and still is totally legit.”

“But not the stuff I said to you about not deserving to be here. That was pure bitterness, I just wanted to inflict as much pain and hurt to you and that wasn't right. You're pretty awesome, Peter”, he smiled and walked up to Peter. “Yeah, that bite was maybe a little luck, but you're a real fighter. You're so smart and you're intuitive and you've more than earned your place here.”

“Thanks, again.” Peter had no idea what to do with all that praise, so he just awkwardly smiled at Harley, who returned the gawky grin.

“Yeah. So, guess that nobody needs to flee from the lab, penthouse or somewhere we might run into each other.”

“What?”, Peter cried out, feigning wide-eyed ignorance. “You have actively fled and avoided my general vicinity? How dare you?”

“Please”, Harley scoffed in return, “as if you never did it. Remember, I'm smarter than you.”

“That is yet to be determined.”

“How about now? Tony has some SHIELD meeting with Captain Rogers, so the lab's empty.”

“Oh, right, that Accords thing, I totally forgot about that”, Peter remembered, put his comic book down and grinned at Harley. “I'm ready to make you weep like a little baby.”

“The only one bawling his eyes out is you Spider-Man. Remember, I know how to kill you all minty fresh.”

“So? That doesn't make you special, I got an entire gallery of rogues who've been wanting me dead for years. So, good luck”, he shrugged, patted Harley's shoulder and pushed past him. “Come on then, try and outsmart me.”

  
  



	10. Chapter 10

“Hi Peter!”, Morgan beamed as she skipped into the Avengers kitchen where Peter, Harley and Bruce sat over some ice cream.

“Hey Mo”, he grinned back. “How was it over at Franklin and Valeria's?”

“So good! They told me about your experiment, so awesome!”

“That it was”, he chuckled and turned to the other guys. “The twins posed the question whether me or Ben Grimm was stronger. And while he beats me considering physical strength, I have the upper hand when it comes to emotional strength so scientifically concluded we tied”, Peter explained and couldn't help the proud grin.

“But Val said that it was really close and that Ben isn't that much stronger.”

From the grin Bruce shot his way, it wasn't hard to conclude that the doc guessed the slight falsification of their results.

“And now they want to test the Thing versus the Hulk.”

As quick as the grin had come, it faltered even faster. “They want to do WHAT?”, Bruce spluttered, blushing slightly greenish.

“They want to know if Ben is stronger or you”, Morgan repeated, not quite getting why Bruce wasn't that big of a fan of the twin's experiment.

“Maybe they should discuss that idea with their parents first”, Peter suggested, “with Hulk they're gonna need some safety regulations put in place. Because Hulk doesn't really want to experiment, he prefers throwing a tantrum.”

“What a nice way of putting it”, Harley chuckled. “Hulk throws a temper tantrum.”

“Knowing Hulk, I'm sure he loves it too”, Bruce chuckled, his face back to its normal colour.

“Little Miss, here you are.” Tony's voice came from the off somewhere, sounding scolding and, turning to him Peter saw the raised eyebrow and pointed finger, matching his scolding tone. “I thought Happy told you to come right upstairs.”

“But FRIDAY said that Peter's here”, She stated matter-of-factly.

“So?”

“I guess what she's saying is that I'm the most important man in her life”, Peter grinned and got the expected look of 'oh no, you didn't' in return.

“Peter Benjamin Parker, even the love-of-her-life-future-husband won't be more important than me”, Tony made clear.

“But I don't wanna fall in love with a boy, because boy's are stupid”, she moped.

“You're right”, Tony nodded, visibly happy that he didn't need to worry about possible suitors showing up on his doorstep any time soon, “all boys are stupid. Except for Dad.”

“And Peter”, Peter threw in.

“And Harley”, Harley tried it, but simultaneously Tony, Peter and Morgan shook their heads. “No”, they agreed.

“You are the stupidest of all the boys”, Peter grinned.

“Says the boy electrocuting himself.”

“Excuse me what?”

Damn you, Harley Keener.

“Nothing”, Peter tried to console his distraught father-figure, “as you can see I am perfectly alright. And if I remember correctly that shock happened only because somebody”, he glared at Harley, “didn't properly isolate the cables.”

“You two are gonna be the death of me”, Tony sighed before turning to his daughter. “Come on, dinner is ready.”

“Can they come, too?”

“Oh, I have had enough stupid boys for one day.”

“We love you, too”, Peter beamed. “That's alright though, Harley owes me a pizza any ways.”

“You winning was nothing but luck, I would have beat your ass if it hadn't been for...”

“Well, I am certain that I do not need to hear that story”, Tony rolled his eyes and held his hand out to Morgan. “Come on, before Mum's lasagne gets cold.”

“Alright. Bye Peter, bye Harley, bye Bruce!”

“Bye you guys!”

“Bruce, you wanna join us?”, Peter asked him, once the door had closed.

“Thanks, but I got a lecture to prepare for. But you two enjoy your pizza , if you're still hungry enough after all this ice cream”, he laughed.

“Oh, you know me”, Peter grinned back, “so don't you worry.”

“Damnit, do I have to pay until you're full?”, Harley groaned. “If so, let me quickly ask Tony for a raise, 'cause damn.”

“Stop your moaning and lets get going, there's this nice place just two blocks from mine and I'm starving, so let's get a move on, people!”

  
  


* * *

  
  


So, once again some really chill evening with Harley turned into a kinda date. What the fuck was going on that after everything they've been through once they were put in a barely remotely date-like situation they ended up flirting and Peter going home with that weird fucking feeling in his stomach.

ARGH! This was infuriation, Harley was infuriating and the effect he had on Peter was so fucking infuriating. They just got their friendship back on track, there was no need to complicate that any more with dating, or flirting and definitely no sex. Ugh, fine, Peter had to admit that if the option of sex with Harley presented itself, Peter wouldn't say no. But he barely admitted that to himself.

No, their friendship was way too fresh and fragile at the moment, there was nothing Peter would want to ever endanger, because, well, as they now knew if it went downhill, it went downhill fast. And just because Harley was cute and funny and hot it didn't mean that there was anything Peter should, could or wanted to do. So, that stupid mushy feeling in his chest and that damn flutter in his stomach could just shut the fuck up and listen to the damn logic part of his brain. And then nothing can go wrong.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“WHAT THE FUCK?” Looking up, Peter saw Tony sitting on the ground, rubbing his hand.

“What happened?”

“What happened?”, he cried out, “you idiot fucked up, that's what. You trying to shock me into your early inheritance or what?”

“Aw, I'm in your will?”, Peter cooed and hopped over to pulled Tony to his feet again.

“Not any more”, he groaned. “Your head is really not in the game today, is it?”

“Sorry”, he mumbled. “you okay?”

“Oh, now that his inheritance is in doubt he asks”, Tony scoffed and sat himself down. “Seriously, what's up? You haven't made rookie mistakes like that in years.”

“I'm really sorry.” Tony was right, Peter's mind was nowhere near engineering. His thoughts were more concerned with the damn crinkles showing up every time Harley laughed. As much as he tried, he really couldn't push these damn feelings all the way down and he couldn't help the flutter when Harley was close and, boy, if he started to smile it was over for Peter.

“You wanna talk about it?” Damnit, Tony shot him this damn supportive and accepting look which Peter couldn't really lie to. But he didn't really want to tell Tony that he was crushing on his other ward. “You know you can talk to me about anything.”

Aw, fuck.

“Fine”, he mumbled and sat down next to Tony. “There might be someone. And I might kinda like that someone.” And now Peter started blushing, well great.

“I sense a 'but' coming.”

“Yeah, well, I don't really know what to do about it, I don't even know if I want to do something about that.”

“That is a biggie”, Tony chuckled. “You electrocuting me makes a lot more sense now. Wanna tell me why you don't want to do anything about it?”

Damnit, how much could Peter tell him without blowing the whole stuff? “It's already a complicated relationship and I don't want to ruin the friendship we have.”

“Ah”, Tony nodded and was that just Peter's imagination or was he biting down a grin. “So, something like what's going on between you and Harley?”

Uhm, WHAT? Peter couldn't help his jaw dropping to the ground as he blushed at the intensity of his spider-suit.

“Come on, kid, I'm not blind, you can give me a bit of credit here.”

Damnit. “Fine”, Peter shrugged and, to be able to get at least a straight sentence out, he looked everywhere but his father figure. “We hooked up at Thor's weird Asgardian victory party and it was kinda fun so we kept on doing it. And then with him finding out and being bitter and saying some bullshit, we kinda broke up, even though we didn't really date but now things are getting kinda flirty again, and I admittedly am somewhat smitten and I don't know, we just got to be friends again and if we go down that romantic road again it's gonna blow up again and it's really sucky because with you, and SI, and this place there is way too much overlapping ground making things unnecessarily complicated again and it's...”

“Woah, woah”, Tony interrupted him. “Take a breath. Ok, I had no idea that your... thing, is going that far back, but alright”, he shrugged, probably glad that Peter didn't go too much into details. “How about this time you start with a date instead of an alcohol-fueled night?”

That was a nice way of putting them hooking up after being so drunk off their minds they didn't even remember it the next morning. “Every time we're hanging out it feels like we're on a date, so I don't know.”

“What does Harley think about all that? Wait”, Tony interrupted himself, “you obviously didn't talk about it, otherwise you wouldn't have an existential crisis about it. Let me rephrase, what keeps you from talking it out?”

“Because it's weird as fuck?”

“Weirder than it is now?”

Damnit, Tony had a point. “You know what? Screw you for always being right”, Peter groaned before finally looking up at his mentor.

“I know, it's a terrible burden”, he grinned, squeezed Peter's shoulder and put a kiss on his cheek. “Go kid, talk to him.”

“What, now?”

“You're not staying in my lab; you're gonna end up successfully killing me.”

“Ok, fine.” A deep breath later, Peter stood up. “I'm gonna talk to him to make it not weird any more.”

“That's a good idea. And you can thank me later”, Tony added with a wink and gestured for the door.

Yes, it was a good idea. And so over-due. Actually about four weeks overdue; that's when they had their pizza date, when Peter first started getting that tingly feeling in his stomach again. Pushing it all down for a month or so was an immensely stupid idea, and thinking back all his excuses were complete and utter bullshit and nothing but fear.

But the time for being a coward was over now and no matter what happened, it was way over due for that to happen.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey guys, have you seen Harley?” It was ridiculous, Peter had looked everywhere and couldn't find that guy. His last hope was the Avenger's kitchen.

“Haven't you heard? Our Harley is on a date”, Clint grinned.

“Oh.” Ok, so Harley was on a date. Cool, cool, cool, cool.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, yeah”, he forced a grin, but no way the guys would buy his fake nonchalance. “All good. So... A date, huh?”

“Yeah”, Nat nodded carefully, clearly aware that this was more than a touchy subject for Peter and even Clint caught on now and it was horrible, because for obvious reasons Peter didn't really want them to know he was hurting. “Apparently he met that guy, Luke I think his name is, in town the other day and I think they're going for drinks.”

“Sounds like fun.” Ok, Peter had to leave. Now. “Right then, see you 'round.”

“You sure you're alright?”

“Of course I am”, he forced another smile. “I'll talk to him when he's back, it's not important anyways.” And that was it with lying. He waved at the two and made for his room as quickly as possible without looking too rushed and, once in the safety and privacy of his room, he just fell on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

So, Peter was too slow. All his panic and fear of being rejected was nothing compared to the pain in his chest of having missed his shot.

Maybe he should take it easy for now. Clint and Nat might have exaggerated the whole thing, the Avengers were known for taking it all to the max after all. And maybe, if it was a date, it was a bust. Maybe the dude, Luke or whatever, was a total asshole and Harley realized that Peter was the better choice.

How long Peter was lost in his thoughts, he had no idea. It was eventually a knock on his door that ripped him out of it.

“Yo”, it was Harley. “Nat said you were looking for me.”

“Come in.” Well, there was his chance to see what was going on.

“What's up?”, Harley grinned and sat on Peter's bed. He was dressed up really nicely and from the smile spreading from ear to ear the date probably went well.

“Nat said you were on a date”, he remarked.

“Yeah”, he beamed. “His name is Luke, we met the other day when I was out for a jog and he chatted me up. He's really cute”, he snickered, sounding like a little school kid. “And he's really cool, too. We had a lot of fun.”

“So, you're gonna see him again?” Damnit, hopefully Harley missed that bitter undertone.

“Maybe, I don't know”, he shrugged, blushing enough for Peter to know that he really wanted to.

“That's cool.”

Aw shit. Worst case scenario fulfilled.

“Yeah, so what did you want to talk about?”

“Oh, that's no biggie”, he lied, “it's already dealt with.”

“Alright then. You going back to the lab?”

“Nah, I have dinner plans with my aunt, I was just on my way out again.”

“Right then. See you tomorrow?”

“Definitely”, Peter forced a smile and, after another grin, Harley all but skipped out of Peter's room.

Harley was really into this Luke-person, wasn't he?

Well, fuck.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“What's going on?”

Of course Aunt May could read Peter like an open book. “Who says that something's wrong?”

“Well, I do know my nephew. Besides, even if I didn't know you like I do, you not eating anything is more than enough of a sign.”

“Fine”, he groaned. “Harley was on a date today.”

“Oh, honey.” May reached over the table and squeezed his hands. “I'm sorry, kid, I know you're crushing on him.” Which is something Peter never once had said out loud, but yeah. May just knew him through and through.

“I was kinda just about to talk it out with him”, he admitted, though it wasn't much more than a mumble. “And then he's on a date with someone else and that guy seems to be pretty cool; Harley is really into him.”

“I don't need to tell you what the proper thing to do is, do I?”

“No”, he shook his head, “I know that I need to take a step back.”

“I know that's tough. But I assume that your friendship with Harley is important enough for you to be respectful of his choices.”

“Yeah”, Peter nodded. “I just don't know how to get to that point were I can be really happy for Harley and Luke.”

“There isn't a recipe for getting over someone like that. And it's gonna be a long, long process that is going to be tough. All I can promise you is that I'm going to be by your side the entire time and am always there to listen.”

“Thanks.” Not sure what else to say, Peter just squeezed her hand and shot her the realest smile he got out all day.

“Any time. Now, you're not leaving this table until you've had at least a bit to eat.”

When Peter was in bed a little while later, he found himself in the same position as earlier that day: laying all still on his back, staring at the ceiling. Maybe there he'd find the answer how to face Harley again.

Maybe he just shouldn't see him again, at least for a while. Not not at all, but a little less. The less he saw of Harley the less he had to lie, the less he had to pretend and the less he would have to suppress any of his feelings. And, with distance, all these feelings would just fade until Peter and Harley could go back to their usual bantering and jokes.

  
  


* * *

  
  


So that's what he did. He wasn't a stranger by no means, but kept his distance, which made the whole thing a little more bearable. Because being around Harley was weird. Really weird. Not that he talked too much about Luke, but still. All of a sudden Peter had no idea what to talk about with him, because between those two, things always bordered on some flirty bantering and they couldn't do that any more. Not that Peter cared that much about Luke, which is a quality of his, Peter didn't really like about himself, but that's just how things were. What was worse was him keeping up his expectations around Harley every time Harley flirted back, or laughed at his jokes or something... It just hurt that bit too much.

So he kept his distance. Which was by no means easy, because Peter didn't have a proper reason to keep his distance. At least none he could tell Harley about without sounding like a total loser. So he reduced his lab time with Tony and Harley to a minimum and spent more free time on patrol, hoping this would work until Peter was alright again.

“Kid, we need to talk.” Of course, Tony had other ideas.

“If this is about the H. A. R. L. E. Y. situation”, he spelled it out, “don't worry, I got it all under control.”

“I doubt that.”

“No, you see, I'm just keeping my distance until all these stupid feelings are dealt with and then things can go back to normal.” Unfortunately, Peter doubted he sounded as convincing as he was trying to sound and Tony would not buy it.

“And what the hell is Harley supposed to make from this situation? All he knows is that all of a sudden you're avoiding him.”

“How else am I suppose to handle this, huh?”, Peter all but cried out.

“You could explain it to him, because he keeps on asking me what he's doing wrong. And you owe him that much.”

“And what else do I owe him? I owe him to be supportive, I owe him to be civil, I owe him to be happy for him that he's with some other guy, I owe him an explanation, I owe him to put myself out there, knowing I'll be shot down. Seriously? It sucks for me, so why the fuck doesn't he owe me anything?”

“Because he doesn't know that it sucks for you or why it sucks for you.”

Ugh, why the fuck did Tony always have to sound so damn reasonable?

“If it goes wrong, I'm gonna take it out on you”, Peter made clear. “And the entire Iron Legion won't be enough to keep you safe.”

“So that means you're talking to him?”, Tony grinned, conveniently ignoring Peter's threat.

“I didn't say that”, Peter grumbled. Then again both of them knew that Peter was exactly going to do that.

“Of course you didn't. Then, go ahead and go do what you're not going to do and are gonna kill me for.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Peter found Harley in his room, daddling on his phone. “Hey, you got a minute?”

“Sure thing”. Looking up, something on Harley's face shifted into something mixed between hope and a bit of worry, what Peter was about to say. “What's up?”

“You're doing alright?”

“Yeah”, he nodded. “You?”

“I am.” Damnit, how was Peter supposed to start this conversation? He awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other, trying to find the right words. “Ok, listen, so there is something up”, he mumbled.

“Oh, you don't say”, Harley rolled his eyes. “Out of nowhere you just avoid me, so yeah, I think something's up. Please just tell me what I did wrong, what I did to upset you, because I don't want to be back to you not liking me.”

“I like you”, Peter made clear, “you did nothing wrong.”

“Then what? Did you do something?”

“I didn't.” Which was the exact problem, Peter not doing what he really should have done.

“Peter.” At his wits end, Harley just gestured wildly at Peter. “What the fuck is going on? You like me, but you don't wanna hang out with me. In my book that is illogical and a total dumbass move.”

“Oh, I'm a dumbass”, Peter scoffed.

“Right now, yeah”, Harley made clear.

“Fine”, Peter sighed. All this was maybe too much and he hadn't even said anything and Harley already called him a dumbass. If he now came clear about all these feelings, he would be an idiot. If he said how jealous he was of Luke, he would be an asshole. Well, maybe Tony was wrong this time, maybe talking it out wasn't the best way. “You know, maybe this was a mistake. I'll see you around.” With that he turned and left Harley's room, before Harley had the chance to say something else.

This was a fucking disaster. All of it, it was horrible and feelings were absolute bullshit.

So, on his way home to the safety of his bedroom and Aunt May, he put his head through the door to Tony's lab one more time. “Tony?”, he called.

“Did you talk?”

“You're a horrible person and just being a genius didn't mean you are right about everything all the time.” With that he closed the door with a loud bang and swung home as fast as he could.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Peter really was a living and breathing stereotype. His blanket wrapped tightly around himself burrito-style, he watched Notting Hill and gobbled up Hunk-A-Hulk-A-Burning-Fudge by the dozen. Stupid Harley, stupid Luke, stupid feelings and, above all, stupid Peter. There was no denying the fact that it was Peter who had fucked this whole situation up and there was nobody to blame but himself. So that was a perfect mix. Heartbreak and Self-blame.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

“Honey?” May put her head through Peter's door. “You alright?”

“What do you think?” He didn't want to sound that pratty or grumbly, especially not towards his aunt, who had done absolutely nothing wrong. “Sorry”, he mumbled.

“It's alright. You wanna talk?”

“Not really, no.”

“Anything else I can do for you?”

“That's sweet, but I just wanna be by myself.”

“Call me if that changes.”

And then Peter was alone again. Which was fine. Or maybe not, Peter wasn't really sure what he wanted right now. Except for Hunk-A-Hulk-ice cream. That Peter definitely wanted and would not want to miss right now.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Yo, webs.” Peter had barely time to react, when Johnny stormed into his room. “Suit up, we're going on patrol.

“Leave me alone”, he groaned and pulled his blanket over his face.

“I'm going to burn down your bed if you don't get out of it right fucking now”, the Torch made clear and shit, Peter didn't doubt it.

“But I don't want to”, he moped as he rolled out of bed.

“I don't care what you want. You get your ass out of bed, into these damn spandex and out on the street with me.” With that, Johnny threw the spider-suit at Peter. “You got five minutes or I'll get the entirety of New York's superheroes to force you to do that.”

“Fine.”

And that is how Peter was now out on the street, swinging alongside the Torch.

“Why are you forcing me to do this?”, he eventually asked, once they sat on a rooftop letting their feet dangle.

“Because you need to get out the house”, Johnny made clear.

“Dude, I go to work, I leave the house every day.”

“Wrong, you work at the same place as your crush and then go home and nurse your heartache. And I am now stopping this form of self-torture and force you to take your mind off Harley. Got that?”

“Yes sir...” That was actually kinda nice. Peter would still prefer to wallow in his self-pity but punching some bad guy was probably a more fun way to deal with all this. “Thanks”, he mumbled.

“Don't mention it.”

Well, with a friend like Johnny, the world might not be as bad any more.


	11. Chapter 11

“So, the answer is x=27 and y=21 and with that my homework is done”, Morgan announced with a proud grin.

“That seems to be a sound conclusion”, Peter laughed. “Good job, you don't even need my help any more, do you?”

“I agree, I'm super smart.”

“Well, guess I'm not needed any more”, Peter sighed and as dramatically as possible got up and fell on the couch with the biggest sigh he had in him.

“Drama queen”, Morgan scoffed and jumped on the couch, just missing hitting any body parts.

“No, you're just a mean person.”

“That's not nice! I'm gonna tell Dad you said that.”

“Wow, way to kick me when I'm down”, he deadpanned.

“Aw, Petey”, she cooed and smooched his cheek. “You know I love you.”

“No no, no”, he shook his head, “you don't get to be this way after crushing my soul.”

With an eyeroll, Morgan sighed: “you know what, when you're done being dramatic, let me know.” And with that, she jumped off the couch, grabbed her school bag and trotted off to her room. Great, once again somebody leaving Peter. And, once again, it was his own fucking fault.

“FRIDAY, lock the doors.”

“What the fuck?” Peter turned to Harley who stood in front of the door with his arms crossed.

“You are not getting out of here until you told me what's up”, Harley made clear. “And I want to hear the truth.”

“You can't handle the truth”, Peter tried to joke his way out of this

“For fuck's sake”, Harley groaned, definitely not in the mood to be joked with. “Talk. Now.”

“Fine.” Well, if Harley wanted the truth, then he'd get the truth, if only for Peter to get out of this situation. “I like you.”

“I like you, too, but what...”

“Just let me finish”, he groaned. “I like you, a lot. Like really. Like kinda romantically. And well, once I got that and wanted to tell you, you are on a date with some other guy and I'm really happy for you, but I'm also not and it fucking sucks and I really tried but I can't be around you right now, because I want to be a good friend and be supportive of your relationship but I can't drop that sucky feeling of jealousy and honestly heart-break and it's all horrible. I'm really sorry, but I can't really be around you because of that. So I'm happy for you and Luke or whoever and he's a really lucky guy because you're a pretty great person but until I'm over all this, I just need my space. I'm sorry.”

Whatever Harley had to say, Peter didn't want to hear it, he couldn't hear it. Yes, the doors might have been locked, but the window was still open and that was as good an exit strategy as anything else and in one big swoop he jumped out.

He heard a cry of “Peter, wait!”, but he was already on his way down, webbing him to the ground and making for the privacy of wherever that wasn't in view of the penthouse.

Only when he dropped on a bench around the corner he realized that he was crying, but that didn't matter. All these bullshit feelings he had bottled up over the last few weeks finally got an out and that felt so good. Even telling Harley. Not that Peter remembered what exactly he had said but the gist was clear and all the information Harley needed was out there.

Or had it been a dick move? If Harley was really happy with this Luke-person, then Peter shouldn't put some more confusing confessions of romantic feelings in the mix.

All of a sudden, Peter didn't want to be alone. He also didn't want to be with anyone who would be psycho-analysing him, but someone to take his mind off everything. There was such a person and, once his face was tear-free, he climbed up the wall of the compound and knocked on Morgan's window.

“Hey”, he whispered as she opened the window, “can I hide in your room?”

“Sure”, she nodded and helped him climb inside. “Is it because you and Harley fighting? I heard you yelling”, she explained.

“Yeah”, he sighed. “It's complicated, I don't really want to talk about it, but I don't want to be alone either.”

“That's ok. We can play Lego if you want.”

“That's just perfect”, he smiled and when a few minutes later he and Morgan were all but covered in colourful building blocks, trying to build a dragon, his earlier confession didn't even bother him all that much any more.

Ok, fine, it did bother him. But the joy of playing with his kinda sister outweighed the negative feelings by far. And, when a little later they lay folded together in her bed and drifted into sleep, nothing else mattered any more.


	12. Chapter 12

“And that is a royal flush, meaning all your money is mine now”, Peter grinned at Tony.

“You damn arachnid”, he grumbled as he threw down his cards and Peter loved every bit of it, especially when he cockily grabbed all the plastic coins they played for.

“Daddy, I thought you said you were good at poker?”, Morgan remarked and boy, Tony was ready to implode any moment now.

“I am good at poker. That gremlin just cheats somehow. There is no way in hell he is that good.”

“Chill, Tones”, Rhodey chuckled as he dealt the next round, but was interrupted by Peter's phone ringing. Harley again; he had tried calling Peter 5 times in the last few minutes. For obvious reasons, Peter hadn't answered the call. After idiotically confessing to Harley, he really didn't want to talk to him because distancing himself was definitely easier than being shot down; especially being shot down via a video call. What the fuck did Harley think that it would be ok to talk on the phone about this? Not that Peter would want to talk about it any way, but if Harley didn't even bother speaking with Peter in person, it couldn't be good, could it?

“I swear to whoever will listen, if you don't pick up that damn call, I'm going to throw you out of my tower”, Tony made clear and, judging from that expression on his face, it was not an exaggeration.

“Fine”, Peter grumbled and grabbed the phone. There was no need for an audience for being completely broken up with, so he made for the somewhat private hallway, where he answered the video call.

“Harley, what's...”

“Finally, I thought you'd never answer the call.” That wasn't Harley; that was Harry Osborn, grinning deviously into the camera. Harry, who used to be Peter's friend; Harry, the Green Goblin, who blamed Peter for his Dad's death; Harry, who actually should be in prison right now.

“Harry, what...”

“Shhh, Pete, darling, it's my time to talk. So, I met this friend of yours. Really nice guy...” The camera turned enough for Peter to see Harry being sprawled out over Harley's lap, who had his mouth duct-taped and was probably tied to that chair he was sitting on. And as defiant as he tried to look, Peter could easily recognize the fear in Harley's eyes. “Up until today, he might have thought that my name is Luke, but secret identities and undercover work, you of all people understand that, don't you?”

“Leave Harley out of this, he has nothing to do with you or me, Norman or any of this.”

“First of all, leave my Dad's name out of your mouth”, Harry made clear. “And secondly, Harley really is of no consequence to me and I don't care if he gets hurt or not. As you might have guessed, he's sorta the middle man. It's you I want. You know where I am, so you better get your ass over here pronto, because I don't know what's gonna happen to our lover-boy over here.” Just before hanging up on Peter, he stroked Harley's cheek who just coiled back from the touch. And then the screen went dark.

Oh shit. That was a lot. So, Harry was Luke. Harry had broken out of jail, pretended to be some nice guy to get close to Harley and therefore get revenge on Peter. But Harley's first date with him was weeks ago! That could only mean one thing.

“Why the fuck wouldn't you tell me that Harry broke out of prison?”, Peter yelled as he stormed back into the living room, where he was met with a bunch of contrite looks from Tony, Rhodey and Happy.

“Because we didn't want to upset or worry you”, Tony explained.

“How do you know?”

“Not thanks to you, that much is clear”, Peter shot back as he changed into his spider-suit.

“The Avengers have been on the look-out ever since”, Rhodey tried to defend their idiocy. But that was not gonna stand.

“Well, fantastic job you're doing. Because not only has he foiled what are supposed to be the best spies in the country, no, he has also been dating Harley for about a month and now has him captive.”

“WHAT?”

“You heard me”, Peter hissed, before pulling his mask over. “So whoop-de-fucking-doo, really well done.”

“Kid, wait, we're coming.”

“I think you've done enough.” Before any of them could ask any more questions Peter didn't have any answers for, he jumped out the window and swung towards the city. Yes, Harry was right, Peter knew exactly where to find him; an old Oscorp warehouse. Just like many of Oscorp's sites, this too was in a horrible condition, waiting to be rebuilt after the Green Goblin had destroyed that facility in a fight against Spider-Man. Sure, this wasn't the only place Peter and Harry had ever fought each other, but this was the place where it all reached the pinnacle, where it was clear that there never would be a turning back, that Peter would be forever on Harry's hit list and where in a metaphorical sense their friendship was buried. And now Harry wanted to end it.

“KAREN, deactivate my tracker.” The Avengers had done enough, besides, this was Peter's fight.

In an industrial park in Queens the warehouse was located and now was in view. All the nostalgia that had inhibited Peter every time he went up against Harry now barely had a chance to break through; not when Harley's life was on the line. It was Peter's fault though that Harley was brought into this situation; if Peter had been a better friend or something, he might have known, there would have been a way to prevent all of that and even though the past was nothing Peter could change, no matter how much he wanted to, he had the present to deal with, as unfortunate as it might be.

What Harley needed right now was Spider-Man, superhero par excellence, not Peter, the nervous wreck with the fucked up life. To Harry, the latter probably didn't even exist any more, all he saw in Peter was the guy responsible for his Dad's death and who deserved to die.

There was no need for hiding, or any sneaky manoeuvres, with all the dramatics he could muster up Peter waltzed right into that hall. “I'm here!”

“Finally”, Harry snickered, “you're really making me wait today.” He still sat on Harley's lap, wearing the damn purple goblin-suit.

“Right, I'm here, you can let Harley go.”

“No, no, no”, he tutted, “I think Harley here should see what kind of a person his Spider-Man really is.”

Finally he got off Harley's lap, which was kind of a relief. Not that Peter had been jealous watching him cuddle it up with his crush, knowing what he knew now. But still.

As he walked up to Peter, he looked him up and down. “Huh, new suit, is it?”

“Yeah”, he nodded, “'bout the third version since we last saw each other.”

“It has been a while, hasn't it?” Stopping about a metre away, Harry shot him an almost friendly smile. “Too long, if you ask me.”

“I wanted to come visit you”, Peter shrugged, “you didn't want that.”

“Of course I didn't want that. Visits from the guy that locked you up in the first place? Besides, I've learned a lot about who you really are and don't really fancied spending that much time with you, listening to your sanctimonious speeches but knowing who or what you really are. Does he know that?” He turned and pointed at Harley. “Does he know you killed my father?”

As much as it was possible with the duct-tape covering most of it, Harley's face fell in pure shock and it hurt worse than the heart-break of the last few weeks.

“I didn't kill your father, it was the serum that literally poisoned him and I warned him. And I warned you about it as well. Please, believe me.”

“How can I? Everything Oscorp ever stood for, everything my family, my father ever was, all that was destroyed by you. It is only just for me to avenge that. Ha”, he snorted a laugh, “and that's even though you're the Avenger.”

“I'm also a product of Oscorp”, Peter shrugged. “That spider, that was your Dad's experiment. But in the end it doesn't matter what is done to us; what matters is what we do with it.”

“Oh, spare me the sermon”, Harry groaned. “You can't seriously compare yourself to me, can you? Your Uncle dies, you get picked up by Tony Stark. My Dad dies, I get locked up. So how the fuck do you think your speech is of any impact here?”

“I guess it isn't”, Peter admitted. “Where does that leave us?”

“On the battlefield”, Harry hissed and jumped.

The fight was short and won easily. Even though Harry had incredible strength and agility and landed quite a few formidable hits, all his rage kept him unfocused. Each punch Peter delivered felt like a stab to the chest though. Harry's screams curdled Peter's blood and, once Peter had webbed him to the nearest wall, his fighting against the bounds broke his heart.

“Harry, you need help. And I'm going to make sure that you receive all the help you need, I promise you that.”

“Fuck you, Spider-Man”, he just yelled and Peter was endlessly glad he wore a mask so Harry wouldn't see his tears. “Mark my words, this is not over! I will end you, and if it's the last thing I ever do.”

“Ugh, shut up!”, Peter cried out and with all the frustration of this very situation he punched hard enough to knock Harry out. “Oh, fuck. KAREN, is he alright?”, he asked and cupped Harry's face to check for vital signs.

“He will be fine”, KAREN assured him, “he's only unconscious.”

“Oh, fucking hell”, he sighed and dropped to the ground. “Thanks, K.”

“That's what I'm here for. If I might direct your attention to Harley...”

“Shit, right”, he remembered, scrambled to his feet and hurried over to where Harley was still tied to a chair, his mouth duct-taped. “You alright? How are you doing? Did he hurt you?”

“MHMMM!”, Harley rolled his eyes.

“Oh, right, sorry. Just a warning, this is gonna hurt. On three. One...”

“FUUCK!”, Harley cried out, once the tape was off. “I thought you said on three!”

“Element of surprise”, Peter shrugged and brushed over the red marks. “Does it hurt?”

“I'll live. You are welcome to untie me, though.”

“Dude, damsels in distress aren't usually that demanding”, Peter rolled his eyes, more than relieved that Harley sounded somewhat alright, and went ahead to untie him.

“Thanks”, Harley sighed and rubbed his wrists.

“Let me see.” Peter took Harley's hands in his and inspected the rope burns. “Eh, it's not so bad, get some lotion on it and it'll be healed in no time.”

“Awesome. Thanks”, he smiled, “for saving me.”

“That's what your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is here for”, Peter grinned back realizing that he was really close to Harley and was still holding his hands.

“Yeah. I'm sorry, though. About Luke, or Harry, or whatever his name. There's a lot of history there, isn't there?”

“Yeah.” He let go of Harley and dropped on the ground. “We used to be best friends. His Dad founded Oscorp, where they did a lot of research on genetic manipulation, especially crossing human and animal genes. One of these experiments ended up being yours truly. Norman, that's his Dad, was really obsessed with strength and it was what eventually killed him. And Harry... He lost it admittedly and took over as the Goblin and things between us, well... I guess you heard all that.”

“I'm really sorry.” Harley slid down on the ground next to Peter; it was a little wobbly and the shock was gonna sit in Harley's bones for a while. “I can't even begin to understand how horrible that must be.”

“Dude, you just got kidnapped. I think you're the one I should be worrying about now.”

“Ah, I'll be alright. Are you?”

“Yeah, I will be”, Peter smiled.

“Good”, he nodded, before looking up, slightly blushed. “We'll be alright too, you know?”

He just grinned up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah; question is, do I have to tie you down for you to listen to what I've been trying to say or are you going to web outta here again?”

“Nah, I'll listen. Just remember that I just saved your ass, so you should be nice to me”, Peter grinned, though he was a little nervous what was about to happen.

“Just listen. The reason I went out with Luke, or Harry, is because I thought you weren't interested in me, because I kept on asking you out and you didn't really seem to respond.”

“Wait, that really were dates?” Oh, Peter couldn't believe what he heard there. “Why didn't you say that?”

“I didn't think it had to be said!”

“Of course it does! I'm an idiot, I thought you knew that by now!”

“Sorry for overestimating you”, Harley shrugged. “Anyways, I was only on like three dates or so with him, because I didn't like him like that. I like you like that”, he mumbled with an awkward grin.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Huh.” In all honesty, Peter had no idea what to do with that. All he could do was stare at Harley, hoping that he would just do something, so Peter wouldn't have to.

“And you... You didn't lie yesterday?”, he asked.

“Nuh uh”, Peter shook his head and, as what was happening right now started to dawn on him, the blush and the grin grew on his face.

“Ok, cool”, Harley grinned, blushing just as Peter did.

“So... Not quite sure what to do with that right now”, Peter admitted.

“Yeah well”, Harley grinned and leaned a little closer. “I just might.”


	13. Chapter 13

“What do you mean, you can't track him?”, Tony yelled at FRIDAY.

“Peter deactivated his tracker.”

“I figured, but what about the secret tracker, I built in after the last time he hacked the suit?”

“I am not able to track him”, FRIDAY repeated for the umpteenth time, and Tony was _this_ close to throw something across the room.

“Can you track Harley then?”

“I, too, am worried about Peter and Harley, so I believe I would have told you if I knew where they were”, she made clear.

“Sorry...” Damnit, this was the worst. For two months Tony had lied to Peter about Harry Osborn breaking out of prison and now Harley was taken and Peter was in the worst state of mind imaginable. All this was gonna end in disaster, Tony could feel it.

“Tones, I got a possible location.” Rhodey, already in his suit, ran into the room. “There's an old Oscorp facility in Queens where Pete and Harley have faced off before.”

“What are we waiting for?” A tip to his watch, and Tony was in his suit.

“Right behind you”, Rhodey nodded, as was Sam. With a possibly disturbed adversary, Tony was happy about someone versed in psychology to tag along. And moments later they were airborne and flew in record time towards the facility in Queens.

“Right”, Tony whispered, once they landed in front of the building. “Be quiet, we don't want to startle Harry, who is somewhat unstable. FRI, what do you make out?”

“There are three people inside, no current movement detected.”

“Right. Move, people”, Tony instructed and into the warehouse they went. The view presented to them was nothing Tony expected, though: Harry was unconscious and webbed to a pillar and dead in the centre of the room sat Peter and Harley on the ground, in a tight hug. Kissing.

“You were right, Stark”, Wilson deadpanned, “Peter really is in way to deep and needs all the help he can get.”

“WHAT?” With a loud cry Harley and Peter jumped apart, jumped up and stared at the Avengers with wide eyes.

“The fuck is wrong with you people?”, Harley yelled, “you can't sneak up on people like that! Don't you think we've been through enough today?”

“Yes”, Sam remarked, “you really looked like you're suffering right now.”

“Oh, I'm sorry about emotions being a bit rare and breaking through, after being kidnapped and having my friend telling me he wants to kill me”, Peter hissed. “So, after tidying up _your_ messes, I think we deserve to deal with our shit any way we see fit.”

“Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry about keeping all this from you, kiddo”, Tony apologized. “We fucked up. I fucked up. And you did a good job, Pete, I'm proud of you. You both coming home now, though. And don't worry about Harry, we've got it handled.”

“Oh, really?”, Peter groaned and he couldn't help the sarcastic tone. “Because you've done so well with that whole situation until now. To make one thing perfectly clear, no decision on what's happening to him is made without me knowing about it. Got that?”

“Promise”, the Avengers nodded in unison.

“Sam, you got Harry; Harley, you're flying with me, Peter, you good with swinging?”

“Yeah”, he nodded. “Let's just get out of here.”

  
  


* * *

* * *

  
  


“Don't rush into something”, Tony remarked when a little while later Peter was showered, in a comfy sweater and ready to drop on the couch and not think about anything any more. Unfortunately, it sounded like Tony had different ideas.

“Tony”, he sighed, “I just want to hug a pillow and stuff my face with Hunk-A-Hulk-A-Burning-Fudge. Is that too much to ask right now?”

“Of course not. Just... The head over heels approach might not be the best, especially not with all the emotional baggage.”

“I know”, Peter nodded. On the one hand he agreed because this way the conversation would be over with soon, but on the other hand Peter really got it. Just because they liked each other it didn't mean that today didn't bring up heaps of emotional issues, which should probably best be dealt with first.

“Do you really, or are you just saying that to get rid of me?”, Tony grinned and put his arm around Peter's shoulder.

That man just knew him too well. “Bit of both”, Peter admitted with a grin and leaned against Tony's chest.

“I think that's good enough”, Tony chuckled and squeezed Peter's shoulder. Which was a bad idea.

“OUCH!”, he cried out and startled in the embrace. “Dude, I'm fresh from the fight.”

“Oh shit, sorry.” With the apology, the arm dropped.

“You can leave it there”, Peter made clear, grabbed Tony's hand and put it right around his shoulder. “Just no hugging for now.”

“Got it”, Tony chuckled and together they made it to the couch.

“Thanks.” Safely enveloped in Tony's arm and a fuzzy blanket over his lap, Peter was content and secure. Secure enough, to ask what had occupied his mind more than him and Harley kissing. “What did you do with Harry?”

“For now he is under lockdown at a hospital. There he's being properly assessed and then he'll receive the needed psychiatric and psychological help he needs. Promise”, Tony made clear.

“Thanks.” That sounded somewhat reassuring and like maybe a tiny bit of hope was in order.

“Of course. After we screw the pooch on all this so badly it's the least I can do.”

“I don't want you to do this for me.” Peter looked up at Tony. “I want this to be done for Harry, because he is actually a really good person. What happened today that's trauma and the goblin serum, not Harry.”

“I'll take your word on that.”

That wasn't the answer Peter had been hoping for, but it was better than nothing. Even if Tony did it all for Peter, Harry was still getting the help he needed and for now that was enough. And, who knew, maybe along the line, Tony would get who Harry really was, is and can be.

“Fine”, Tony sighed, “I'll work on believing in Harry.” Man, Tony really could read Peter like an open book.

“Means the world”, he grinned up and leaned back against his shoulder and bit for bit calmed down. That mix of coffee, machine oil and that bubblegum-scented soap of Morgan, was next to Aunt May's mix of disinfectant from the Hospital, her apple shampoo and chocolate from her secret stash of goodies the most calming smell. And after a while, the sweet smell of some more bubblegum-scented soap washed the last bit of anxieties away.

“Hey Pete”, Morgan grinned and climbed on the couch next to him. “Do you want to teach me some more poker?”

“Oh, definitely”, Peter grinned back.

“I just want to be so good that I too can beat Dad.” The mischievous glint in her eye was something Peter was a little proud of having taught her. At least that's what Tony accused him off.

Before Tony could complain and mope about that, Peter remarked: “not sure I can teach you that, though. You sorta need spider-powers for that.”

“What?” Both Tony and Morgan turned to him with wide eyes. “So you did cheat?”

“I mean”, Peter shrugged in defence, “I can't help it when I can hear your heartbeat quickening when you lie.”

“Omigod.” Tony took two deep breaths. “I was questioning my entire life because I could not for the love of me figure out how you could see through my poker face. But that... I don't know whether that's smart or devious.”

“It's awesome”, Morgan beamed. “You can really hear heartbeats?”

“Yeah”, he nodded. “I just try to tune it out most of the time, because it's kinda annoying and distracting. But when he has a good hand, he gets so excited that his heart beats faster.”

“How is my heart beating?”

For the best effect, Peter stared at Morgan intently and started to mimic what he heard. “Ko-Kong Ko-Kong Ko-Kong.”

“That is so cool! You could work at the hospital!”

“You mean as a heart monitor?”, he laughed, “that would be cool, but it's really hard sometimes, because try to imagine: if I can hear your heartbeat, what else can I hear?”

“That is so incredible, we need to test that!”, she giggled excitedly, all thoughts about poker and beating Tony forgotten as she jumped off the couch and into her room. “I need my kit!”

An engineer's daughter and raised by a whole bunch of scientists, of course she had her experimentation kit. It looked similarly oversized as Valeria and Franklin's, given that she had nicked the coat from Bruce, the goggles from Helen and what she deemed to be a fancy pen from Pepper. The fanciest thing about it was the colourations on the tip and the clicker, which looked golden, but Peter doubted it was more than one of those freebie-pens you got at a convention.

“You up for that?”, Tony asked.

“I think a nice bit of distraction is just perfect right about now”, Peter smiled up.

“Good. Then I'll leave you crazy kids be.”

“And probably go and practice a way of bluffing without your vital signs giving it away”, Peter snickered and for that got an emphatic pat on the bruised shoulder. “Ouch, ouch, ok, sorry, I take it back.”

“Good. Then have fun doing all the tests I assume you and Ned did back in high school already.”

“At least there won't be any weird surprises”, Peter grinned back and, with a laugh, Tony nodded and walked off towards the kitchen.

“Peter, can you hear me now? I am in my room and am talking with my normal volume. If you can hear me, meet me in my laboratory with juice pops.”

“Yes, ma'am”, he giggled, and off to her lab he was.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey”, Peter called out following a soft knock. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah”, Harley called and grinned at Peter all wrapped up in his blanket. “Get your ass over here.”

“Yes sir”, he grinned and made himself comfortable on the foot end of Harley' bed. “How are you doing?”

“Gradually getting worse by the amount of times I have been asked this today.”

“Sorry for caring about you”, Peter rolled his eyes. “I can't even imagine how much it must suck having people worried about you, hoping you're doing alright and stuff.”

“Dude, don't go all preachy on me; I've seen the looks you shoot Tony and the Avengers when they ask you if you're alright after a fight.”

“That's something different”, Peter tried to talk himself out of it, although Harley admittedly had a point. But that didn't mean that Peter had to admit that to Harley... “In my case it comes with the job and happens regularly. Being kidnapped is something else though.”

“Ok fine”, he mumbled. “Yeah, I'm alright. Ok, I will be eventually”, he corrected himself before shooting Peter a skew smile. “Thanks for asking.”

“Thanks for answering truthfully”, Peter smiled back.

“How'd you know I was truthful?”, Harley challenged him.

After already destroying Tony's world view by telling him about Peter's inbuilt lie-detector, he should probably not tell Harley about that; that just was the nice thing to do. Besides, it might come in handy in the future and if only for beating Keener at poker. “Because I know you”, he just answered and delighted at hearing Harley's heart beating that bit faster.

“Tony said you spend most of today with Sam”, Peter got back on topic.

“It was a Stark-decree, but a really useful one. Sam is really good at all that psycho stuff.”

“Yeah, he does a lot of group therapy for vets. And from my own experience I can say you're in good hands with him.”

“I am in plenty of good hands here”, he smiled. “This place here got me a home, a psychologist, even my own superhero.”

“I think there is more than just one hero looking out for you. But yeah”, he grinned somewhat awkwardly, not really knowing what else to say.

“Yeah.”

And here they were again; awkward eye contact, blushed cheeks and Peter really wanted to just lean over, grab Harley's hands and cuddle up to his side. But Tony's words about taking things slow had stuck with Peter. Not just that, but Harley had been in danger because of Peter. Harry had said it; he hadn't cared about Harley, hadn't cared whether he lived or died as long as it would lead him to Peter.

“You talk to Tony?”

“About us, you mean?”, Harley asked, catching on to what Peter just needed to get off his chest right freaking now. “Yeah, I did. I'm assuming you did, too.”

“Yes”, Peter nodded.

“And do you agree with him?”, Harley asked somewhat carefully and if Peter read it correctly a little anxious to what he might answer.

“I do”, Peter nodded. “I like you so much, that hasn't changed. But it can't matter, after today there's just a bit we need to deal with, each on our own.”

“Yeah”, Harley smiled somewhat relieved. “Taking things slow doesn't mean that things will never happen. And it doesn't mean that we don't like each other like that.”

“I mean, unless you go out with another of my rogues”, Peter snorted, before he could stop himself. “Sorry, that was probably too soon.”

“Just a tad.” Harley had a grin on his face though.

“I'll keep that in mind. You need your sleep, so off to... I mean, you already are in bed, but you know where I'm going with this”, Peter gestured wildly around the room with his explanation and Harley just started laughing; a beautiful, wonderful, perfect laugh.

“Thanks, you too. I wish you dreams of cotton candy, chocolate and ice cream.”

“And I hope that when you close your eyes you dream of rainbows, flowers and glitter-pooping unicorns.”


	14. Chapter 14

“This is his room”, the nurse smiled and pointed at the door.

“Thanks”, Peter smiled and hoped she didn't feel his hesitation as he knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Cautiously Peter opened the door and slipped into the room. “Hi Harry.”

“What do you want here?” After looking up and seeing who had come to visit him, Harry quickly turned and stared straight out of the barred window.

“I wanted to check on you.”

“You mean gloat.”

“I do not. I know you don't want to believe it, but I care about you. And I want to make sure that you're well.”

“Which is why you locked me up in an asylum?” Now Harry turned, trying to stare Peter down, but he held the look.

“Well, the Avengers wanted to lock you up in a dirty cell and throw away the key.”

“Don't quite know what is worse”, Harry scoffed. “Oh, by the way, how's Harley?”

“He's alright.” Peter really hoped that Harry was not about to try and get him to lose it by taunting him about Harley.

“Good.” It really seemed to Peter as if he meant it. “He told me a lot about a certain friend of his and it sounded like he really liked that dude. And that dude is the reason nothing ever happened between him and Luke.” He looked Peter up and down. “That dude's you, isn't it?”

“Yeah”, Peter nodded and couldn't help the blush.

“So, are you together then?”

“We're not. A lot has happened, so we're taking things slow.”

“Huh.”

And then some awkward silence as neither really knew how to break it.

“Don't feel obliged to stay”, Harry eventually shrugged and turned back to the window.

“I'd like to come visit again, though.”

“Whatever”, Harley grumbled, “see if I care.”

“Right then”, Peter sighed. “I'll see you.”

The unintelligible grunt Harry gave sounded to Peter like a good-bye, so he turned and left Harry in his room.

“That was a quick visit”, the nurse who had led Peter to the room, remarked, when Peter passed the nurses' office. “Visitation is for another thirty minutes.”

“That's alright”, Peter smiled, “we're building up to that.”

“Sounds like you'll be back”, Nurse Simmons, as read her name-tag, smiled and it sounded like a statement and question at the same time.

“I will”, he nodded. “See you then.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey Harry”, Peter smiled as he walked into the room about a week later. “How are you doing?”

“Just peachy”, he fake-smiled.

“Great. I'm good by the way.”

“Didn't ask.”

“You didn't. Oh, I talked to MJ the other day, she says hi.”

“What's she up to these days?”

“She's in Chicago, works in a law firm.”

“So still fighting for the underdog.” Peter could have almost sworn he saw a reminiscent smile.

“Of course”, he laughed, “I don't think she'll stop fighting until she's six feet under.”

“Good for her.” With that, Harry turned back to the window and ended their conversation.

“It really is. I'll send her your regards”, Peter smiled and made for the door again. “See you next week.”

This game kept on repeating itself. Peter came to visit, tried to get a conversation going and talk to Harry, until he turned to the window; turning his back on Peter was Harry's sign of being done with the visit. And over time, it became easier and easier, their conversations lasted longer and longer and Harry even opened up from time to time.

“Hey Harry”, Peter grinned when walking into his room again. “So, Aunt May says hi, and she gave me a batch of peanut cookies to bring you.”

“Ugh, I love these”, Harry moaned and happily grabbed the box from Peter's hands. “Say thanks from me.”

“I will. She'll be happy you like them.”

“Are you kidding? Those are the best things ever created!”, he munched, already a cookie in his mouth.

“You gotta savour them; I can't come by next week, so they have to last a while.”

“Oh. Why?” Direct questions like that were rare, especially with Harry looking up at Peter with what might even be a twinge of disappointment.

“There's a mission. We're going to the West Coast. Some HYDRA cell that needs to be taken care off.”

“That's good”, Harry nodded and went back to enjoying cookies.

“Really? Since when are you in support of superheroes?”

“I'm not”, Harry made clear. “But Nazis are worse than you so-called heroes.”

“Wow, I think that sounded almost like a compliment”, Peter chuckled.

“Well, it wasn't. Thanks for the cookies.”

And, clutching the cookie tin close to his chest, Harry turned to the window.

“You're absolutely welcome. See you soon, Harry.”


	15. Chapter 15

“You got everything you need?”

“Harley Keener”, Peter groaned. “Firstly, this is not my first mission so I know what to pack. Secondly, I won't be gone longer than two, maybe three days tops. And thirdly,” he turned to Harley to shoot him the best Tony-stare he could muster up, “you're not my wife.”

“You guys are a little married”, Morgan commented from her place on Peter's bed. All that was missing was her having a bucket of popcorn as she watch Peter and Harley's bickering.

“At least I'm helping.” Harley turned to her. “I still got to see you being of any use.”

“I think that thinking you're helping is worse than not helping at all, because at least I'm not meddling with Peter's stuff and I'm very much not annoying him.”

“And that's why she's the smarter one”, Peter grinned and, after another pair of socks was in his bag, finally got to zip it. “There we go and with thirty minutes to spare!”

“Actually you got two hours left”, Morgan remarked, leaning back into the pillows. “Dad said you leave at one to make sure that you're ready on time, but you're actually leaving at three.”

“Oh, fuck that!”, Peter cried out and Harley and Morgan just started laughing. “No, don't you dare laugh”, he made clear and stormed out and towards the penthouse. What did Tony think? Sure, his teenage-self hadn't been the most professional of superheroes and even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to be as exact as Captain America, but still. He wasn't that bad and he was going to let Tony hear it.

“ANTHONY EDWARD STARK!”, he yelled once through the elevator doors.

“I told you we couldn't have a nice bit of quiet”, Tony shrugged and Pepper got off his lap. “What's up then?”

“Dude, I deal with Harley and Morgan to give you a bit of quiet before the mission and you pay me back by lying to me? What the fuck, dude?”

“Dude? You hear how he talks to me?”, Tony chuckled at Pepper before turning to Peter. “Sorry for the fib. But the last three missions we had to wait for you so I got a little creative.”

“That ain't creative.”

“He's right”, Pepper agreed with Peter. “That's mean.”

“Thank you, Pepper”, he smiled, stuck his tongue out at Tony, turned on his heel and strutted back to his room. “FRI, keep Tony from joining the Avengers on time for take-off. I don't know, get him stuck in the elevator or something so he's late for at least fifteen minutes”, Peter asked once he was out of earshot of the penthouse.

“I assume Tony will not take kindly to your revenge”, FRI just commented.

“Of course he won't, but please, just do it? For me?”, he cooed, shooting the camera his best puppy eyes.

“Fine. I will not be held responsible for any backlash.”

“Of course not, you have my word. Thanks FRI, you're the best. And you”, he pointed at Morgan as he strutted back into his room. “You kept it from me.”

“Crybaby”, she rolled her eyes. “What are you doing for revenge?”

“Already done. Don't think I'll involve you in that after what you pulled. So, what do you wanna do then? Seeing that we got two hours left”, he shrugged and dropped on the bed between the other two.

“You could brief us”, Harley grinned. “Or was it debriefing?” With that smirk and wink even Peter got that Harley didn't talk about the mission and couldn't believe that Keener made such comments in front of Morgan.

“I won't debrief you, Keener”, he snorted and cursed himself for the blush creeping up his cheeks. “But I can tell you what'll happen.”

“Yes, but do it professionally”, Morgan was quick to demand. “Like Captain America.”

“To the briefing room then”, he nodded and led the way. Morgan giggled all excitedly, but unfortunately, Peter couldn't look at Harley, since he wore that damn proud smirk for having Peter blush at his remarks. Screw him. But like in the offensive way. Oh for crying out loud, not even in his own mind could Peter properly insult that guy without it sounding like flirtatious banter.

“Alright, listen up threes, a ten is speaking”, Peter announced once they were assembled in the briefing room. “Not you, Mo, you're an angel and we're thrilled to have you.”

“Does Steve seriously start meetings like this?”

“He did for a while”, Peter nodded proudly, “as his official meme and popculture tutor, it is my upmost duty to make sure that Captain America's speeches are on fleek.”

“That was really lame”, Harley deadpanned. And rightfully so.

“Whatever”, Peter waved it off, “best part is it regularly drives Tony up the wall. It is so delightful.”

“Ok, how does it continue then?” Morgan didn't have any of Peter's story telling.

“Right.” With a harrumph, Peter took his Captain America stance. Talking and moving like Steve was no real issue; during his time at Midtown Peter had seen more than enough of those horrible PSAs to mimic Steve's mannerisms to a T. “This is the situation. There is a HYDRA cell in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. According to our reports this underground facility is fundamental for most of HYDRA's activities in the area; attacks from California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington State and Idaho can be tracked back to this institution; possibly more.”

“So, what is our plan of attack, sir?”, Morgan asked, looking dead-earnest and it took all of Peter's willpower to keep from cackling out loud.

“We set our base of operations here”, he answered and pointed at the map of the states in front of them. “Once we arrive, we will set up and as soon as possible start with surveillance, to complement the data and information we already have. Once we know everything we can about this place, we'll attack. Stark, you'll lead the attack from the north, you got Spider-Man, The White Wolf and Scarlet Witch with you, got that?”

“Yes sir”, she nodded and even saluted.

“Good. The second team, led by Captain America, got the Falcon, Hawkeye and Black Widow; they will be attacking from the South. The goal is to dismantle the cell and get all the information this facility has to offer.”

“That sounds like a succinct plan, sir”, Harley nodded, biting down hard to keep from bursting with laughter.

“It not only sounds like a succinct plan but exactly like Steve, too.” Behind Peter, Bucky did not try to hide his laughter. “You got his speech patterns down, kid, I'm impressed”, he patted Peter's shoulder.

“Impression is a form of flattery, isn't it?”, Steve chuckled and Peter blushed only a little in embarrassment that he was caught in the act by Cap himself. “Or how does that saying go?”

“Well, Morgan wanted the real deal, and I've seen enough of your PSAs to do you justice, I believe.”

“Oh, I forgot those PSAs!”, Harley burst out with laughter, “sorry dude, I know you're this American Hero but damn, they were bad.”

“Thank you, Harley”, Steve deadpanned. “You're dismissed.” He turned to Morgan and from the grin he tried to hide, Peter could tell this was going to be good. “Has Peter already briefed you on the mission here?”

“No, he hasn't”, she shook her head and her eyes got wide in anticipation. As did Peter's, he had no idea what Steve was going on about.

“Alright, then this is your official briefing, from the official leader of the official mission.” He cleared his throat, not unlike Peter earlier, straightened out his posture, which Morgan mirrored, and shot her the official 'I'm serious' look. “For the smoothest run of this operation we need a connection here to our base of operations. And somebody needs to be in charge of that.”

“Who?”

“Who do you think?”, Steve returned the question. “There's only one person I trust with that, and that's you.”

“Really?” Her jaw by now had hit the ground. “Me?”

“Of course”, he nodded all earnestly. “Who else am I gonna appoint? Harley?” He rolled his eyes and Peter just motioned for Harley to not start arguing. “No you, Morgan, were trained under Spider-Man, Ironman, The Iron Patriot and even Thor, God of Thunder, holds you in highest reverence. And it is about high time that you became part of the operation, don't you agree?”

“Uhm, yes, definitely!” She caught her fallen features again and looked up with determination clear in her eyes.

“Good, only thing missing is a codename.”

“You mean like Spider-Man?” Peter started to doubt that Morgan's big eyes would ever get back to normal. “So, I could be Spider-Woman?”

“That's already taken”, Peter shrugged. “You don't have to be a Spider-person, or Iron-Girl or something. Be your own hero.”

If they laid it on any more, Morgan was going to explode into pure pride, joy and excitement.

“How about Queen Bee?”, Harley suggested. “Seeing that you're about to run this place.”

“I LOVE THAT!”, she squealed and all but jumped up and down. “Morgan Hope Stark, also known as Queen Bee, ready for duty, sir”, she announced and saluted Steve, who beamed in pride.

“Welcome to the Avengers, ma'am”, he saluted back. “I believe I don't have to tell you about the importance of secrecy and absolute trustworthiness. Then again you have stuck true to those ideals, as I am sure Mr Parker can attest.”

“I can”, Peter nodded, “she has always kept my identity safe.”

“Then nothing stands in the way of you being officially anointed as the Queen Bee of the Avengers. Do you accept this title?”

“Yes, I do.” By now, Morgan was practically vibrating with excitement.

“How wonderful”, Steve smiled. “Then I will brief you on your mission. Your secret mission”, he added with a glance to Peter and Harley, who got the hint.

“Of course”, Peter nodded and pushed Harley out the door, who was a little resistant.

“Come on, dude, that shit is so adorable! I wanna see what her mission is! Don't you?”

“Of course I do”, he agreed as he pushed Harley further down the corridor. “But come on, let her have that moment. I'm sure Steve'll tell us about it eventually.”

“Ugh, fine”, Harley groaned and voluntarily trotted along Peter back to his room. “Then I have a mission report for you, too.”

“Yeah?”

“One thing”, Harley demanded and closed the door behind him. “Come back home safely, alright?” All the humour dropped immediately and he turned immediately all earnest and sincere.

“Yeah”, Peter nodded. “That's kinda the plan.”

“I'm not kidding. I know it's selfish to put that on you, but since... you know... I understood what it's like out there. And I'm fucking terrified every time you go out in these damn spandex and yeah, it's cool that Morgan can be distracted with her Queen Bee thing, but that doesn't really work on me, so I need something better than a fancy title. I need you to promise me that you're gonna come back.”

“I will”, Peter repeated, grabbed Harley's hands and, with locked eyes, hoped to express all the sincerity. “There are seven others with me and believe me when I say that all of them will do everything to make sure I'll be alright. More so than the other Avengers, actually. Especially Tony. We've been through a lot and I have so many safety measures in these spandex. That suit is bulletproof, it's got its own AI for crying out loud and more defensive mechanism than even I know. I'm in the best hands ever. It's seriously more dangerous to cross the street than what I'm about.” He squeezed Harley's hands and even got a small smile in return. “I feel like I should worry about you. For three days you'll be all alone with Morgan as Queen Bee and Happy. Like, you should ask Tony for hazard payment.”

That got Peter the hoped for laughter, that really beautiful laughter that maybe lit Peter's soul up just that bit. “Ok. I can live with that as long as I get regular updates.”

“I already promised that. Man, you're more demanding than my aunt”, he chuckled.

“Well, your Aunt has been dealing with this shit for ten years. I had what, six months?”

“What, you planning to stick around another ten or so years?”

“First come back, then I can decide”, Harley shrugged and, though he tried to look intense or scolding, that shy grin broke through.

Would it be wrong for Peter to lean over and kiss Harley? Probably. It'd be nice, though.

“Come on”, Harley smiled and grabbed Peter's bag; interrupting the weird eye contact. “Let's get you to take-off so you're at least on time.”

“That's alright, though”, Peter chuckled, “I told FRI to make sure that Tony is late.”

“Dude, you're part of a highly secret mission, backed by state agencies and you play prank war? I don't know if that's hardcore awesome, idiotic or just irresponsible.”

“Yeah”, Peter admitted, “probably a bit of all three. At least I don't need to worry about him leaving me in Nevada once this is over. If he did, May would tear him a new one, resulting in Tony rather walking to Nevada than letting anything happen to me. So I'm not too worried”, he giggled as they walked along the corridor.

“I can't get how you're, despite your aunt's protection, which by the way is valid, that woman is seriously fierce, more worried about Tony than you are about fucking HYDRA?”

That's a good question, Peter didn't really know how to answer. “Let me put it this way: you're doing some programming for work vs you build a tower with Morgan. Which one induces more anxiety?”

“Ok, fine”, he admitted, “I would be annoyed if my code didn't work, but I'd be absolutely terrified of messing up and being the one to trip the Lego Tower.”

“Exactly. Spider-Man's my job. And of course I'm scared of Nazi terrorists, but that doesn't matter when I'm in a fight. Tony's revenge on the other hand... I got no control over that. So of course that's terrifying.”

“To be honest, I would be a lot more terrified of Tony if I hadn't seen him in Spider-Man boxers, but yeah”, Harley laughed. “Oh, by the way, why the fuck am I carrying your bag?” With the sudden realization, he just dropped the bag.

“We're three metres from the garage.”

“It's such an understatement to call this a garage.”

“Not the point I wanted to make”, Peter shook his head, “we are ten steps from the heli and you decide you no longer want to carry the bag?”

“I honestly didn't even realize I was still doing it. And it is now a matter of principle.”

“A matter of principle of being a dick?”

“Well now I'm definitely not carrying it any more”, Harley scoffed, left the bag right where it was and walked right off through the doors.

“That settles you being a dick, you know?”, Peter called after him, grabbed the bag and followed. It wasn't that he couldn't carry it, since Peter was definitely a lot stronger than Harley. But, as Harley said, it's a matter of principle. And that officially made Harley a dick. Well, not really. But some playful bantering made for an easier good-bye.

Not that Peter was going away for too long, but it's not like Harley was completely wrong. Peter was about to go up against a Nazi terrorist group and he wasn't as relaxed about it as he pretended to be. But Harley already worried enough about Peter, there was no need to give him any more reasons to do so. Besides, it took Peter's mind off things for the time being. And that was just the right thing for now.

“Might I remind you that you're still saved under 'la cuccaracha' in my phone?”, Harley smirked, sitting on a box.

“You're really a damn persistent parasite”, Peter shot back.

“Maybe a few days without that won't hurt too much”, Happy remarked without looking up from his tablet.

“Without what?”

“Your constant bickering”, he explained, still fixated on his tablet. Peter knew him well enough to know that whatever Happy was so intently staring at wasn't that big of a deal. Probably it was just the technically inept head of security trying to make out the logistics of the mission. “I definitely won't miss that the next few days.”

“But you'll miss me?”, Peter asked, exactly knowing what kind of answer he was about to get.

“Yes, Peter”, he deadpanned, “I'll miss you like...”

“... like a sore on your big toe, I know”, Peter snorted.

“Good, you remembered.” Now Happy looked up, with a grin on his face.

“Yeah, I do”, Peter grinned back. “I love you, too, you know?”

“Yeah”, he nodded and the grin turned into full smile. “Now, get a move on, think you can carry the surveillance shit on board?”

“Sure thing”, Peter nodded and skipped up to the box, Harley was sitting on. “Off.”

“What's the magic word?”

“You mean the one starting with p?”

“That's the one”, Harley grinned.

“Fine”, Peter shrugged and shot Harley the sweetest smile he had in him: “piss off.”

“Not what I had in mind, but fine.” With all the dramatics, Harley jumped off the crates and strutted away.

“Thanks.” And, by the time Peter had loaded the heli, the Avengers had arrived, including Morgan, with her head held high, shoulders squared and looking around as if she owned the place (which she probably won't for another few years).

“How was your briefing?”, Peter mumbled quiet enough so the other Avengers wouldn't hear it.

“Classified, I unfortunately can't discuss it with you.”

Oh damn. Steve really went for it, there.

“Anyone know where Stark is?”, Steve asked.

“If anyone knows, it's the vermin-squad”, Nat shrugged, gesturing at Peter.

“Who you calling vermin?”

“The cockroach and the parasite.”

“Oh right”, Harley admitted. “But I don't know, I haven't seen him all afternoon”, he shrugged and shot Peter a pointed look.

“I don't know, either.” And that wasn't even a lie. All he knew was that FRI made sure Tony wouldn't be on time; where he was being kept Peter had no idea.

“FRIDAY, where's Tony?”, Steve sighed.

“He is in the penthouse.”

“Well, tell him to come.”

“Unfortunately I am not connected to the bedroom.”

“What, but why... Oh, come on!”, Steve groaned, rolled his eyes and stomped into the heli.

Oh, this is not what Peter wanted, definitely not. “FRI, just sound the alarms or whatever, please get him down here asap. Despite earlier.”

“I will see what I can do.”

“You know that this is your fault, right?”, Harley mumbled into his ear.

“Just, ugh”, he shuddered, trying really hard not to think the obvious thought right now. “I'm gonna go scrub my brain.”

“Ah, relax kid”, Tony chuckled walking into the hangar. “Figured it's enough revenge for you getting me stuck in the elevator for the last twenty minutes.”

“That's cruel.” At the same time, Peter, Harley and Morgan groaned at Tony.

“You were right, about fearing him more than HYDRA”, Harley remarked. “Anyways, if you don't go now, Captain America is going to go berserk.”

“You got a point. Come here, kiddo.” He wrapped his arms around Harley. “I'd tell you to look after this place, but I'm not going to do that to Happy.”

“Much obliged”, Happy smiled. “I'll see you in three days, boss. Kiddo.”

“Bye Happy”, Peter waved at him. “And, Queen Bee.” He saluted to Morgan, ignoring Tony's confused look, “god speed, ma'am.”

“Have a successful mission, Spider-Man”, she saluted back. “And you too, Ironman.”

“Don't even think a salute is gonna be enough”, Tony made clear and wrapped his arms around his daughter.

“I'll see you”, Peter just smiled at Harley.

“You better. Just remember, if you end up dead, I'll kill you myself.”

“Got it loud and clear”, Peter smiled and followed Tony on the heli, just turning one more time to wave at Morgan and Harley, before disappearing inside and almost immediate take off.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“So, you finally gonna tell me what your secret briefing with Morgan was all about?” They hadn't been airborne longer than fifteen minutes, before Peter couldn't keep the curiosity in any more. “She only said it was classified so she couldn't discuss her mission with me.”

“That's good. Been an Avenger for half an hour and already better at it than some of us”, he chuckled.

“Excuse me?”, Tony cried out, “you made my daughter an Avenger? First of all, how dare you, sir, secondly why was I not consulted, thirdly she's a minor so she can't do shit without my signature and fourthly and most importantly: how dare you?”

“I mean, you made me an Avenger while I was still a minor, without my Aunt's signature”, Peter shrugged.

“Oh, so you're comparing this”, Tony wildly gestured around the heli, “to the damn space donut and … “

“I'm not”, Peter interrupted him, before Tony could utter that horrible name of that horrible planet that neither of them could bring themselves to say. “Just saying, you know?”

“And your daughter is not about to fight evil aliens, she's just running the compound”, Bucky threw his explanation in.

“Yeah, you're not making this better, Barnes.”

“Ok, just relax. After you so horrendously lied to me, we decided to spend the remaining time giving Morgan an official briefing.”

“Peter nails Steve's every mannerism, it's incredible”, Bucky laughed.

“Anyways”, Peter continued, not in the mood for another round of 'How Do You Know The Detention PSA So Well?', especially since he graduated High School almost eight years ago and Tony still brought it up from time to time. “Steve then appointed her Queen Bee. What exactly that means he was just about to tell me.”

“Good, Rogers, then you can tell me, too”, Tony fake-smiled and turned to Steve.

“It's basically her mission to run secret and important documents around the compound and to me. Sometimes the other way around. Meaning, I send her an encrypted message with a mission, for example locating a certain document from the Avenger office, encrypting that and sending it to me.”

“We showed her how to work the M-209”, Buck continued the explanation.

“What's that?”

“Basically a machinated cipher wheel from WWII. It's small and easy to use and perfect for this situation.”

“Happy and Pepper should be in as well, I sent them a text each asking to play middle-man on occasion. I figured that it might take her mind off her Dad and brother being in danger”, he shrugged.

“Wow”, Tony sighed and all of a sudden was all smiles. “Thanks, Rogers. That whole thing really is amazing. You do realize that it will have to continue, once we're back in NYC, right?”

“I do”, Steve laughed.

“But this isn't just a 'Steve-project', is it?”, Peter asked, “I mean, all Avengers can request and send messages, right?”

“That's right, but since Queen Bee is such a high-ranking member, I am her point man, all communication goes through me”, Steve made clear.

“That is... I don't know what to say. You really thought this thing through, haven't you?”, Tony wondered.

“Please, he's making this up as he goes along”, Buck laughed, earning him a hit to the arm.

“It's a simple game with official sounding words”, he shrugged. “I think what you should worry about is that she now officially outranks most of you.”

“Sure”, Peter grinned, “but I mean, that was just a matter of time anyway.”

* * *

  
  


**la cuccaracha:** so, it's showtime

**la cuccaracha:** on our way to the site now

**parasite:** damn it's getting serious

**parasite:** how're you feeling?

**la cuccaracha:** I'm alright, really

**la cuccaracha:** with a pretty good team here, you know?

**parasite:** yeah guess you are

**parasite:** so, what's the plan?

**la cuccaracha:** get in, take down the bad guys, grab the intel and get out of there

**la cuccaracha:** simple as that

**parasite:** sounds simple

**parasite:** as long as you ignore the Nazis shooting at you

**la cuccaracha:** gotta live a little, right?

**.**

“Pete, we're en route to a mission, can you please, for the love of god, stop texting!”, Tony groaned.

“Lemme see.” Before Peter really knew it had happened, Nat had grabbed his phone and scrolled through the texts. “Damn, Harley's clingy.”

“Come on, Nat give it back.”

“Nope”, she grinned and started typing.

.

**la cuccaracha:** sorry, I think it'd be the best for you to be cut off from information for a while

**parasite:** what the fuck dude?

**parasite:** wait, who took Peter's phone?

**.**

“Huh, he's smarter than I'd have given him credit for”, Nat chuckled.

.

**la cuccaracha:** not bad, it's Nat

**la cuccaracha:** Peter has to focus on the mission now, he'll get his phone back once we're on our way back home

**parasite:** you guys do realize he's no longer fifteen, right?

**la cuccaracha:** once he stops acting like a teen, we'll stop treating him like one

**la cuccaracha:** don't worry about him, he'll be fine. He's got more powers than most of us and we're all looking out for him. Promise

**parasite:** thanks, Nat :) just remind him that if he ends up dead I'll kill him

**la cuccaracha:** got it * thumbs up *

.

“So, Harley asks me to remind you that he'll go all French Revolution on you if you get yourself killed.”

“Aw, how charming”, Peter fake-smiled. “Do I get my phone back?”

“After the mission”, she made clear and tucked it away in her suit.

“Break it and I get a new one!”

**.**

**parasite:** ok, I guess you're on your mission now, just wanted to say that you better kick some Nazi ass which you'll do amazingly, I don't have a single doubt

**parasite:** just remember to message once you're done

**parasite:** just so I know you're alright

**parasite:** which I know you'll be

**parasite:** but still

.

**parasite:** Peter Benjamin Parker, I haven't heard from you in five hours, not since Nat took your phone and you signed off to your damn mission, and I think that it shouldn't have taken that long, not that I really know a lot about classified mission and shit, but five hours is really a long time; it's been going on a lot longer than it does in movies

**parasite:** I'm not freaking out or anything

**parasite:** you could still check in

**parasite:** not that you promised

**parasite:** oh wait, you did

**parasite:** so as long as you're not dead you better answer me

**parasite:** RIGHT!

**parasite:** FUCKING!

**parasite:** NOW!

.

“Ugh, can you please just answer these damn messages, I am losing my freaking mind!”, Clint groaned.

“What am I supposed to do?”, Nat hissed back as she bandaged up the rest of Clint's arm. “Peter's knocked out in the medbay.

“I don't care, that constant vibrating makes me nuts.”

“Ugh, fine.”

.

**la cuccaracha:** I'm alright, Harley, everything went well and I'm ok

**parasite:** who are you?

**la cuccaracha:** it's still Nat and I can't believe you found that out. How?

**parasite:** we made a code word, in case something bad... you know

**parasite:** but why do you still have Peter's phone?

**parasite:** what happened?

**parasite:** is Peter hurt?

**parasite:** omigod, is he dead?

**la cuccaracha:** chill, dude, he's in the medbay being checked out. Got a bit of a concussion, bunch of contusions, but he's alright. Really.

**Parasite:** concussion is nothing I'd call alright

.

“Nat, are you still on Peter's phone?” Tony walked up to the two, with a pretty brutal shiner, that weirdly looked worse now that it was cleaned than it did on the battlefield earlier.

“Harley is a nightmare”, Clint groaned, “he keeps on blowing up Peter's phone.”

“I got it”, Tony shrugged, grabbed the phone out of Nat's hand and called him.

“Harley, it's me. Ok, first of all you're gonna shut up and listen. Don't worry, all of us are alright, thank you for not asking. And Peter has a concussion, but he'll be fine. He's sleeping right now, but once he wakes up I'm sure he'll message you right away. The mission was an overall success and as much as I appreciate you worrying, it's ok. It really is. You got that? Good. I love you, too, kiddo. See you tonight.”

With a sigh, Tony hung up on the call. “Man, it's a lot less exhausting to explain my wife I broke my nose, hell, it's so much more chill to tell May that her kid got a concussion”, he shrugged and, with Peter's phone in hand, he walked back towards the medbay.

“They actually agreed on a codeword with which Peter was supposed to answer. That guy is hardcore.”

“That guy isn't hardcore, that guy is head over heels in love”, Clint shrugged and smeared up the bruise on his side. “Still don't get why those two aren't a thing; Peter's just as smitten.”

“Whatever it is, it's not our place to gossip about it. Besides, they're old enough to deal with it by themselves.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


The first thing Peter managed to properly make out when he opened his eyes again was Tony sitting by his bed with a wide smile. “Perfect timing, we're just about to land.”

“Huh?” Peter's brain was pretty foggy and he wasn't even sure what he remembered and what he didn't.

“Doesn't matter for now”, Tony just chuckled. “You did amazing during our last mission and now there is absolutely nothing you need to do but rest.”

Mission... Shit, the HYDRA thing, Peter was just lying around all dazed and confused while his friends were in a fight! “Sorry”, he pressed out and tried getting out of bed, “I'm ok, we need to...”

“No, Pete, we don't need to do anything. The mission is over”, Tony made clear and gently pushed Peter back on the bed.

“But HYDRA...”

“We won”, Tony nodded, “and we're all fine. You just got a bit of a hit on the head and I am so sorry about that but don't worry, you'll be just fine.”

“Ok”, Peter nodded. The way Tony smiled and sounded so sincere, Peter could definitely trust that and he relaxed. So what if he didn't really get what was going on right now, Tony said it was fine, so it was fine. The memories and the probably crucial information would come back to him eventually.

“So, you alert enough for dealing with distraught Harley?”

Distraught Harley? Why would he be... Oh. “I need'o message him”, he remembered and searched for his phone. His untraceable phone.

“Don't worry, I called him”, Tony assured Peter and gestured at Peter's cell phone in his hands. “He's alright. Quite worried though, might be a bit smothering once we get home.”

“Ok.” If Tony wanted to smother Harley when they got back, why did that have anything to do with Peter?

“Right, I don't think your brain is properly processing everything right now. Doesn't matter”, Tony chuckled, “we'll get there again. You feel up to a bit of moving?”

“'course”, Peter nodded and untangled himself from the blanket. “I'm Spi-Man, af'er all.”

“Of course”, Tony agreed and held his hand out to Peter. “Then let's get out of this heli, Spider-Man, what do you say?”

“Yeah.” With Tony's help, walking wasn't that difficult any more.

In the medbay, Bruce already waited with a wide smile. “Hey Peter, how're you feeling?”

“Dizzy”, he reported and was endlessly glad that he could sit back down on a bed here. “Head hurts. 'm feeling sick.”

“Yeah, that's gonna suck for a while, but not too long. I promise. I can give you something against the pain if you want, and then you're welcome to sleep a little more.”

“Ok.” It was probably best to just go with it all, at least that seemed to be the easiest way to act right now. And, after a shot from Bruce, his brain still felt all fuzzy, but in a really relaxed and soft and almost wonderful way. It felt as if Peter was hugged by clouds, no, he was laying on them, floating somewhere far away from horrible noises, evil people with guns and pain. No, this was nice. Really nice. The higher Peter flew, the fluffier and softer the clouds were. And they were colourful... Like little rainbows, rocking Peter deeper and deeper into sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

“Knock knock”, Peter grinned and put his head through the hospital door.

“People who say knock knock are losers”, Harry commented drily, barely looking up.

“And me being a loser is news to you?”, Peter scoffed as he walked in and made himself comfortable on a chair.

“True that. Nice shiner.” Finally Harry looked over and looked Peter up and down. “But I guess you being here means you won.”

“We did. One less HYDRA facility around.”

“Good.”

“How was your week?”

“Was alright. Bunch of therapy, just the usual. How'd you get that thing there?”, he gestured at Peter's face and probably meant the black eye.

“Right, story time. So, we attack. Sneaking in wasn't that easy since they were pretty good with security. If they weren't bad guys I'd say it was impressive. But they're bad guys, so all I'm gonna say is that they made it all a little harder than we would have liked.”

“Oh, boohoo, poor superheroes, the Nazis didn't turn themselves in”, Harry scoffed, but grinned a bit.

“Anyways, shooting and punching started a lot earlier then we hoped for, but we held our own just perfectly”, he added with emphasis. “Anyways, me, Nat and Bucky went to get the documents, data and stuff. There were a bunch of paper documents but mostly digital, so we're just trying to get everything and to put a long story short there was a booby trap and an explosion and then I don't really remember the rest. Apparently my spider senses picked up on it, and I jumped in or something like that. Got knocked out, got a concussion and a whole bunch of these”; he pointed at his bruise. “But we still got what we needed, at least that's what I'm told. So, all in all, thumbs up”, he grinned.

“Guess a congratulations is in order.”

“Oh really”, Peter smiled.

“Yeah. That was it, by the way.”

“Thanks, means the world.”

“I'm sure it does”, Harry smiled. Actually smiled. A real, teeth-showing, friendly smile. And with that, Harley turned to the window.

“Yeah”, Peter smiled back, got up and headed back for the door. “See you 'round, Harry.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Heya”, Peter smiled, walking into Harry's room.

“You're late”, Harry remarked.

“Sorry, was stuck at work, non of my fucking shit worked and it was so frustrating and ARGH!”, he groaned. “Sorry, I'm not here to bitch.”

“You can bitch if you want to”, Harry shrugged. “You could just tell me what you are working on at the moment.”

“Ok, but you can stop me any time I get too intense. Anyways, so my field's bionics, but you knew that already. Anyways...” And the rant started. About how how absolutely nothing worked, how incredibly stupid Peter was and that he was probably only one more mistake away from Tony firing him and how the universe probably hated him.

“Woah”, Harry threw in, “dude, you didn't breathe in the last fifteen minutes, so you take a breath and calm the fuck down.”

“Ok...” And a deep sigh later, Peter felt still absolutely manic, but maybe not ready to jump out of the window any more. “I'm better.”

“Good. Otherwise you'll be my room-mate in here faster than you'd like. Now, Tony is not gonna fire you, that much I know. And I don't think the universe hates you. Not even I hate you.”

“You don't?” Peter only could look at Harry with wide eyes and a smile he did not have under control.

“I mean...”, Harry shrugged, “I guess.” And with that he turned to the window.

“Right... See ya.”

“Had a nice visit?”, the nurse asked, when Peter trotted out of the room and along the corridor.

“Yeah”, was all he got out, absolutely speechless and not sure what exactly just happened. “Yeah!”, he repeated with the widest smile.

“Then I'm happy. Until next week then, I suppose.”

“Definitely.”

Oh, no way Peter was going to give up now. He knew it, he had known all along that Harry was still there, his friend was still in there somewhere. His friend, who really liked Peter, despite what had happened.

This exhilarating feeling was just about the most amazing thing and that damn grin just wouldn't disappear. But so what if it didn't, it wasn't exactly a bad thing to run around with a wide smile all the time. Weird maybe, even for New York, but still. It was an amazing feeling. And there was definitely nothing in this world that could ruin Peter's mood.

Or so he thought.

“Earlier today you looked ready to jump off the tower now you're beaming brighter than an elf on Christmas morning”, Harley observed when Peter skipped into the compound.

“I just visited Harry and he says he still likes me!”, Peter squealed and was this close to doing a backflip.

“Oh.” That one syllable was enough to wreck Peter's mood in an instant. It wasn't an 'I'm happy for you – oh', or a 'how great for you-oh'. It was a 'that's unfortunate-oh', a 'that sucks-oh', a 'there's a lot of unkind things I'd like to say but I'm polite so I won't say anything-oh'.

“Spill it”, Peter demanded. His giddiness was already ruined and the damn uneasy feeling wasn't going to go away until he knew what bothered Harley.

“I just think it's weird that you still keep on visiting Harry after what he's done.”

Weird? That was probably code for horrible.

“Why? I get what he did, I do. And I know what he did to you. But I also know Harry and that he's not like that. That's the Goblin-serum, its fucked-up effect on his brain and a whole bunch of trauma.”

“Convenient bunch of excuses and explanations”, Harley just shrugged.

“I'm not saying what he did was good, and I'm not saying that you need to like him, but I feel like you're about to ask me to choose between you two.”

“What if I was?”

“But you're not, are you?” Because if Harley was, it would be the worst thing to ever happen. How could Harley ever asked that of Peter? Because one thing was clear, that was not a decision he would ever make. “Because I won't.”

“Why wouldn't you? Hypothetically, why?”

Fuck, this was about to end in disaster. “Hypothetically, because me and Harry have been friends longer than me and Ned, and because hypothetically I can't give up on him. He's got literally nobody else left.”

“Good thing I'm not asking then.” With that and barely gracing Peter with another glance, Harley turned, walked out and left Peter by himself with nothing but that shitty, shitty feeling in his stomach.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hi.” With more than wobbly knees and still the queasiest feeling, Peter walked into Harry's room.

“You're upset”, Harry observed.

“Nothing you need to worry about”, Peter forced a smile. “How was your week?”

“Uneventful. What happened?”

Damnit, Peter couldn't just tell Harry that Harley had issues with him and that it had gnawed on Peter for days; absolutely nothing else had mattered and he just hoped Harry was right with his assessment that Tony would never fire him, because the last four or five days he accomplished next to nothing.

“Just some stuff with Harley”, he shrugged, not really in the mood to tell him about it, but also not really feeling like lying.

“He's got a problem that you're coming to see me.” Of course he knew and all Peter answered was an affirmative shrug. “Do you mind a question?”

“Shoot.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Huh?”

Harry looked at Peter like he had just told him that 1+1 equals four. “What the fuck are you doing here? Because judging from how you're always beaming when you talk about him, you choosing me over him seems illogical.”

“I made clear I wasn't going to choose between you two. Because yes, I'm really into him but I'm not giving up on you. And I know this is a sucky situation for him, I understand that he's got real issues with you that he deserves to have but that's not a choice I am ready to make.”

“Wow.” It was silent and Peter could watch the cogs turning in Harry's head.

“Yeah, but all that is not on you”, Peter hurried to say.

“Yes, it is. Because I fucked up, majorly. What I did to Harley was horrible, no question there. If there is any way I can make it up to him, then I want to do that. And if that is you stopping to come visit me, then that's a just punishment for me.”

“But not for me”, Peter made clear. “I like you, Harley. So much, you're my friend since forever, you were the one guy interested in the nerdy little orphan, you were the one that got me through losing Uncle Ben!” By now Peter was not just close to tears, his eyes watered up and any moment now he was gonna bawl it out. “Yeah, I get that Harley's hurt. But I can't choose here, I need you both, for very different reasons and for very different things and for very different feelings.” And now the tears, that Peter had tried to keep in for a week, made their way down his cheek. “I... I just don't know what to do”, he sighed and dropped on a chair.

“Right Peter, I like you just as much, which is why I am taking a step back. Work this through with Harley, without me in the mix making a bigger mess out of things.”

“But...”

“No but”, he made clear. “I'm really touched that you don't want to make that choice, which is why I am now making it for you.” And with that he turned towards the window.

“Harry, please.”

“Take care, Peter.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


It took three days for Peter and Harley to run into each other again. But in all this mess there was so much to deal with, that Peter really wasn't in the mood to actively seek him out.

“So, you don't have to worry about Harry any more.”

“I didn't ask you to choose.”

“And I didn't”, Peter shot back. “I told you I wouldn't. But Harry decided it'd be best if he'd take a step back. So yay”, he faked an over-exaggerated smile.

“Peter, I didn't want you and Harry to break up or whatever and I definitely don't want you to be upset. I just want you to understand how much it sucks knowing you hang out with the guy that kidnapped me, after faking a relationship no less.”

“I do get it. But he's also the guy who helped me through losing three quarters of my parental figures before I turned sixteen. And that's why I didn't want to make a choice.”

“Because he's...”

“Because I've known him for most of my life. And chances are that if you had asked me to choose, I would have probably chosen him.” With that, Peter turned away and headed for his room as quickly as he could, before Harley would see him bawl his eyes out.

  
  


* * *

  
  


A knock on his door ripped Harry away from the book he was reading. Fine with him, it sucked anyways, the author clearly had never heard of developing a character. “Come in”, he called.

“Hi.” Harley, who awkwardly shuffled into the room really was the last person Harry had expected.

“Harley. That's a surprise.”

“Yeah, not sure what I'm doing here.”

“Then let me apologize. I'm sorry, I'm so incredibly sorry of what I did to you and I regret this so much, I... I can't even express how sorry I am.”

“Well, please excuse me for not buying all of that.”

That was expected, deserved; Harry didn't really deserve forgiveness. “No need for excuses, you're right in all your merited hurt.”

Apparently that was not what Harley came here to talk about; he didn't even address anything apology-related and all but blurted out: “Peter said that if I had forced him to choose between us, he'd have chosen you.”

Oh. That was... Something.

“And I need to know if you knew that and if that is why you broke up with him, because you felt bad or whatever.”

“To make one thing clear: we were never dating and we never will, so we didn't break up. But no, that's not why I did it. And whatever Peter said about choosing me over you is so not true, he said that in the heat of the moment, being pissed off and overwhelmed with the whole situation.”

“Well, right now he's curled up and bawling his eyes out.”

“He's had to say goodbye to me once before, survived it then, he'll survive it another time”, Harry shrugged, hoping that Harley would buy his nonchalance.

“Yeah, but then it wasn't my fault.” With a sigh, Harley finally sat down; that awkward fidgeting where he stood was seriously infuriating.

“Don't blame yourself! Seriously, with all the issues you and Peter have it's a surprise that I'm the one in the asylum”, he snorted a laugh. “Maybe you two should come to therapy with me. I'm sure my therapist would love to get to know the two guys she's heard so much about.”

“You talk about us in therapy?” Harley looked somewhat between disbelieving and insulted.

“Yeah, amongst other things. Trust me, my life's a shitshow. And yes, Peter never giving up on me helped. And he helped me enough that I can now help him in return. He can't make the decision, so I just made it for him. And I think you can agree that you're the better choice.”

“Thanks for that”, he eventually mumbled.

This conversation was clearly over, but just turning away didn't work with Harley like it did with Peter. “Right then, this has been plenty weird and awkward for one day, so, don't feel like you need to stay.”

“Got it”, he nodded and, after an awkward wave, left Harry by himself again.

Well, the next therapy session was gonna be a lot of fun...

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Are you now telling me where you're abducting me to?”, Peter groaned for the twenty-third time (not that he counted).

“It's a surprise. Besides, we're almost there”, Harley assured him for the twelfth time (again, not that Peter counted).

“Ugh fine.” Peter wasn't in the mood for being brought to some secret mystery place, he just wanted to be home and do nothing but stare at his laptop screen, where Netflix asked him if he really still was there.

This area was familiar though. Really familiar. It took Peter a moment, but he knew exactly where they were going. “Harley, that over there is the clinic where Harry's at.”

“I know”, he nodded, parked in front the clinic and motioned for Peter to get out.

“And what are we doing here?”

“Going on a bender”, Harley deadpanned. “What do you think?”

Ok, this was weird and unexpected to say the least. But Harley strutted out front, all confident, as if he had been here before. He definitely was here before; he knew where Harry's room was; didn't even ask the nurses where to go. Whatever was about to happen was definitely not what Peter expected when Harley told him to get in the car.

After knocking, Harley put his head through the door. “Hey Harry, you busy?”

“Oh come on, dude!”, Harry groaned, “when we agreed that I'd stay away I didn't think you'd show up here again and besides, I definitely haven't recovered from your last breakdown.”

“Wait, what?” This whole thing was a lot and Peter had no idea to handle it. So Harley had visited Harry? What the absolute fuck was going on here?

“Is that Peter?”

As an answer Harley just pushed Peter into the room, where Harry looked similarly unsure what to do with all this.

“Ok, you're both gonna listen. This situation is fucked up, it really is. I'm not gonna lie, most of the blame is on Harry, but a bit is on me, too. I don't know if we'll ever be cool”, he gestured between himself and Harry, “but I at least want to be cool with you two being cool. So everything'll be cool.”

“Yeah?” Peter couldn't really believe what he heard right there.

“Yeah. After I was here last week I thought that maybe things would go back to normal, well, the normal I wanted. But Harry, you really mean a lot to that idiot and, as little as I understand it, I can't ask Peter to stay away from his friend, without being an absolute controlling shit-head. And I don't wanna be that.”

“Harley, you have no idea how much that means to me”, Harry smiled and looked almost emotional doing so.

“And don't worry, we'll take it one step at a time”, Peter assured him ; he could barely keep the pure and utter adoration for Harley out of the beaming smile he shot him. “And please be honest when things go too far, ok?”

“Promise. Right, first order of business: he discusses us in therapy.”

Peter didn't get why Harley looked so insulted. “Yeah. So?”

“What do you mean, so? It's weird!”

“Not if you see it as this here”, Peter gestured wildly between the three, “being the one current thing happening in his life.”

As if it were on cue, the door opened. “Mr Osborn, I have to push our meeting to... Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you had visitors.” The woman smiled around the room. “I'm Linda Messner, I'm his therapist.”

“Ms Messner, that's Peter and Harley.”

“It's nice to meet you.” And she looked just that bit happy of finally having faces to go with the stories she had heard.

“I don't know if it's a weird question, but Harry mentioned something about talking about us in your sessions.”

After getting nodded agreement from Harry to talk about it, she answered: “yes, he has. I'm sure this must be awkward to hear, but I can assure you that I hear good things only and all within a professional setting. Well, I don't want to disturb you any longer, I just came to say that I need to push our appointment by an hour, I have a meeting I need to attend.”

“Sure, no probs. At four then.”

“Exactly. Well, see you later and Peter and Harley, it was nice meeting you.” After another smile, she left again.

“She seems really nice.”

“Yeah, she's great. Helping me a lot”, Harry shrugged and Peter could clearly see that this was all he was willing to share about his therapy.

“Cool. So, how were your last weeks?”

“Was alright. Got a newcomer, she seems alright. Likes 80's cop shows too, so that's nice to have someone with great taste in here. How was your week?”

“Uneventful”, Peter answered and sat down on the chair by Harry's bed, “not a lot happened. Johnny Storm dared me to paint polka dots on one of Tony's iron-suits. Haven't done it yet, the creative inspiration hasn't really hit me so far. Besides, I don't really feel like being kicked out of the Avengers.”

“Good point. Once it inevitably happens though, I demand pictures.”

“Don't worry”, Peter laughed, “I got you covered.”

“That's what I wanted to hear. So, I'm just going to say this pretending like he can't hear us, hoping it'll be less awkward, but Harley's a pretty good guy. He's got my blessing.”

“Gee, thanks”, Harley deadpanned.

“Appreciate it”, Peter smiled, ignoring Harley and hoping he ignored the blush creeping up Peter's cheek that Harry deemed Harley a good boyfriend for Peter. “Shit, I almost forgot! MJ says hi, as always. And I talked to Liz the other day.”

“Oh?” Just as expected, Harley was just that bit more attentive. Yes, Peter might have had a crush on her once upon a time, but the real dream team was Harry and Liz. Up until Norman died and Harry took over as the Goblin, Peter and most their classmates were sure that they would make it all the way. And clearly Harry was not over her; he probably never would be.

“She asked about you, told her that you're getting help and that you're getting better. She's very happy to hear it and wishes you all the best. And, if you want, she would like to visit you.”

“Yeah?” That smile was almost hopeful and Peter just nodded. “Thanks Peter. And thank you, Harley.” With a last smile he turned to the window.

“See ya next week”, Peter smiled, got up and motioned for Harley to leave the room. Not really sure what was going on, he wordlessly complied, let himself be pushed out of the room and, before he got the chance to voice his astonishment, Peter just wrapped himself around Harley. “Thank you.”

“Uhm, sure.” He most definitely still didn't quite get what was happening right now, but hugged back. “I just like you too much not to at least try to work this out.”

“You have no idea what that means to me”, Peter mumbled, afraid that the tears were gonna roll right here in the corridor of the clinic if he were to say more. He kissed Harley's cheek before breaking away and shot him a smile. “Alright, come on, let's get some food; I'm starving.”

  
  



	17. Chapter 17

“PETER BENJAMIN PARKER!”

“Aw shit!”, Peter cried out, jumped off the couch and up on the ceiling. He was dead, he was so dead.

“Where is he?”, Tony grumbled, stomping into the living room in full Ironman-attire; Ironman-attire that was strewn all over in artfully painted polka dots. Peter had worked all night on that and figured that the green and purple colour combination looked really cute.

“Are you looking for Peter?”, Morgan asked, playing all innocent. “He's not here.”

“Little Miss, unless you want to be charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive and obstruction of justice you will tell me where he is.” Oh damn, Tony did not play around.

“You can't make me talk, narc”, she hissed back and Peter almost burst out laughing.

“Oh for the love of Edwin Jarvis, I never should have let you watch those bad cop shows”, he groaned. “Please, I am not in the mood for this. Where's Peter?”

“I don't see him”, she just shrugged. Oh, Tony was gonna be extra pissed.

“I'm here”, Peter announced before Tony would get really angry and, with a backflip landed on the carpet with just enough safety distance for his spider-senses to have enough to time to react. Not that Tony would ever hurt him. But still. “I'm sorry I dragged your spawn to the dark side.”

“That the only thing you're sorry for?”

“Yes”, Peter nodded and bit down the smug grin. He knew exactly what apology Tony was fishing for, but Peter wasn't sorry about that! The armour looked amazing and Johnny now owed him so many hot dogs.

“If that is your final answer there's gonna be some serious hell to pay.” The mask was folded back, but Peter still wasn't quite sure how to read Tony's face. There was a hint of amusement, though he suppressed it quite well; there was plenty of annoyance but most of all exasperation. He was clearly done with any and all of Peter's bullshit; had been for ten years or so.

“Look, I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry”, Peter shrugged and could no longer keep from grinning. “Those colours really suit you!”

“Please, kid, that's really not my issue; I know I'm good looking enough to pull off pretty much anything. Who put you up to this? Storm, Keener or Shuri?”

“The first. And you know me, I'm not one to back down from a challenge.”

“No, you unfortunately are not. I feel like I need to have a word with Sue Storm, have a talk about keeping that Torch away from you.”

“That's not fair”, Peter protested.

“What's not fair?”, Harley asked. “That Tony gets to have a beautifully coloured suit while you're stuck with red and blue?” He dropped on the couch next to Morgan before shooting him that infuriatingly sexy smirk.

“You see, Harley can appreciate my art”, Peter shot over with a bit of a triumphant grin.

“You mean the guy who thinks that Chucks are fancy shoes?”, Tony deadpanned. “That's your authority on fashion choices?”

“Good point”, Peter agreed. “Don't argue it”, he sighed in Harley's direction, “you can be lucky your work doesn't rely on your looks.”

“Says the guy with more Avengers merch in his closet than ties.”

“You men are such divas”, Morgan shook her head. “There are more important things than nice suits and even nicer suits-of-armour.”

“Like...?”

“Like dinner”, she finished her speech. “Peter and I were just talking about making Tacos.”

“That does sound really good”, Tony agreed and, with a tap to his watch, the suit disassembled. “You kids got it handled?”

“Yeah”, Morgan nodded. “You can go and tell Mum that dinner will be ready in thirty minutes.”

“Yes ma'am”, Tony chuckled and made for the door. “I'll still have a word with Sue Storm”, Tony called out, unfortunately timed so perfectly that the elevator doors closed before Peter could retort something.

“Don't worry”, Morgan assured him, “he can't keep you from Johnny.” With a pat to his shoulder that would feel patronizing from anyone except a twelve year old, she skipped into the kitchen. “Come on, boys, dinner won't make itself.”

“Yes ma'am.” With a chuckle, Peter and Harley followed her into the kitchen and her every instruction.

“Oh, Morgan, I think Harley's cutting these onions a bit too thick.”

“At least I can be trusted with a knife” Harley shot back at Peter, who was frying the mince.

“You just can't be left unsupervised with a stove.”

“Because I'm already so hot”, he smirked.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that”, Peter rolled his eyes. Yes, Harley was hot, but that wasn't exactly something he could, would or wanted to admit to; at least not out loud.

“Mhm, smells fantastic in here”, Pepper smiled. “You guys need any help?”

“Nah, we got it”, Morgan assured her. “Just take a seat and we'll be done as soon as Peter and Harley stop arguing.”

“Are you arguing again? How often fell the word 'cockroach'?”, Tony inquired, locking eyes with first Harley, then Peter, who just shrugged. They weren't fighting, that was unfortunately all flirty banter.

“I think at the moment Peter and his parasite comments are in the lead”, Harley shrugged. “FRI?”

“In the last week Peter has called Harley a parasite 27 times; Harley has called Peter a cockroach 24 times in the same time span.”

“Thanks FRI”, Harley grinned. “So you see, I am the better person.”

“For heaven's sake”, Tony groaned. “I'll not only have to separate Peter from Johnny Storm but also from Harley, don't I?”

“Would be a dick move to do that after we cooked dinner for you”, Peter shrugged, putting a few bowls with vegetables on the table.

“Same league as painting somebody's suit of armour? Just asking for a friend”, Tony shot back, with the signature raised eyebrow.

“In both cases you would dismiss somebody's hard work. If you can console that with your conscience...”

“Dad, don't start arguing as well”, Morgan groaned. “Or me and Mum will have a diva-free girl's night.”

“That sounds wonderful, actually”, Pepper beamed.

“No, we all cooked together, now we eat together!”, Harley protested, looking like somebody shot a puppy in front of him. These only partly played sad eyes were actually kinda cute. But only kinda.

“Ok, but you need to behave”, Morgan demanded, pointing first at Harley then at Peter.

“Promise”, they nodded in unison.

“Good. Then dig in!”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Ben, can you bring me the pliers over there?”, Harley called through the lab and without missing a beat, Ben, that traitor, dropped the screw-driver he was holding for Peter and walked over to help Harley.

“Excuse me?” Peter couldn't do much more than turn to Harley with his jaw dropped. “That is my robot you're misusing there.”

“So? You're getting help from Butterfingers or Dum-E, and they're not your bots either. What makes Ben so special?”

“Oh, you did not just say that, you fucking parasite!” This was incredible. Then again, it was Harley, so his insolence was very credible. “Ben only works with good people, don't you?”

“I'm not a good person, is that what you're saying?”

“Yes, I am. I can draw you a picture if you don't understand”, Peter offered, smiling as condescendingly as he could. Harley just rolled his eyes at that; a clear sign that he wasn't sure what to retort to that and Peter couldn't help the victorious smirk.

“Ben, your Dad is a really bad person”, Harley eventually grumbled and took the pliers from Ben before patting his head. “We're lucky you didn't turn out a cockroach like him.”

“Ok, that's enough”, Peter made clear and walked up to Harley. “You're not dragging my Ben into your pit of despair and bitterness and whatever else you got in your hole of darkness.”

“I'm bitter?”, he repeated, taking a step towards Peter.

“Yeah, you're bitter, I'm better.”

“At?”

“Everything”, Peter made clear with a smirk.

“Oh, is that so?” Harley didn't event try to be subtle as he let his gaze wander up and down Peter's body, before locking eyes. “I'm gonna need to see some proof of that.”

“Don't you think that misusing MY robot, because he's the best in reach, is enough proof?” It took a lot out of Peter to keep his eyes locked on Harley's and not reciprocate him being checked out by looking Harley up and down or, even worse, keep on staring at these lips that are so damn good at being kissed.

“Well, what can I offer you in return?”

“Not in my lab”, Tony groaned and, turning to his mentor, Peter saw him standing in the doorway, shaking his head and probably trying to find a way to erase the last how ever long he was standing there from his memory.

“I was about to offer my help with engineering, where if not here would I do that?”, Harley shrugged though he clearly had something different in mind, judging from the blush. “Seriously, Tony, what did you think I was gonna...”

“Stop talking, Keener.” Without looking at the two, Tony went to his workbench and, similarly red as his spider-suit, Peter avoided any and all eye contact with either of them as well.

“Ben, come on”, he waved at his robot, “Harley isn't the best influence on you.”

“But you are?”

“Don't start”, Tony sighed. “Man, I don't get paid enough to deal with you two.”

“You're a billionaire.”

“And it's still not enough! I seriously deserve hazard pay.”

“Don't complain”, Harley scoffed, “you introduced us.”

“You think I don't know that? But...”

“Captain America requests Peter to join him in Meeting Room B”, FRIDAY interrupted Tony.

“Ugh, saved by the bell”, Peter sighed and gladly skipped out the door. “I'll be right there!”

Good, something probably official, that would take Peter's mind off Harley, of standing so close that he could feel Harley's breath, of having Harley's eyes wander all over Peter's body; of watching those fine lips...

“Peter, thank you for coming.”

“Thank you, Steve, you saved me from smug Harley and exasperated Tony”, Peter chuckled. “So, what's up?”

“I have a secret message from Queen Bee.” Steve held a letter out to Peter and with a wide smile he took it.

“Awesome. Is it already decoded?”

“Yes, otherwise I wouldn't know to give it to you. Read it, and immediately destroy it”, Steve demanded.

“Yes, sir”, Peter nodded, opened the envelope and got to reading.

.

_This is an important message for Spider-Man, please give it to him once decoded._

  
  


_Spider-Man, we will rendezvous at five pm sharp_

_Usual meeting place_

_Queen Bee_

_._

“Do I burn it, or how does it work?”

“Yes, official protocol is to burn it. Here.” Of course Steve was prepared: he put a trash can on the table and held a lighter out to Peter.

“Alrighty then.” To make sure that no trace of the secret message would remain, Peter watched it burn until even the last bit had turned to ash. “I better head on to the meeting then. Thank you, Captain, for delivering the message.”

“No problem”, he grinned. “It's my honour.”

“Sure”, Peter laughed and made his way for the elevator. The roof was where Peter was headed; his and Morgan's secret meeting place since it was one of the few places they could be absolutely certain that FRI wasn't around, listening in.

Morgan was already there, when Peter walked out.

“It's a long way to the top.”

“If you wanna rock'n'roll”, she answered and motioned for Peter to sit down next to her on the ground. As soon as Queen Bee's official agent status had been created, they obviously needed a codeword to make sure that not even a shape-shifter would be able to intrude on their super-secret rendezvous. “Thank you for coming.”

“Of course. What's up?”

“Promise me you won't tell Mum or Dad.”

Oh, whatever it was, it was serious. “Promise”, Peter nodded and held his finger out. “Pinky promise.”

“Alright.” She wrapped her finger around his and, after a deep sigh looked up at him. “It's a boy thing.”

Oh shit. Not sure what to say, Peter just nodded, hoping that Morgan would continue talking. Which she luckily did.

“So there is this one boy in my class, Leon, he's really nice, not just to me, to everyone. He shared his lunch with Alexis the other day, because she forgot hers at home; he helped Amy with her presentation, because she has that stutter, you know? So he volunteered to help her with it.” Her eyes lit up as she cooed about that really nice sounding guy in her class. “And he's really funny, too and smart and we often eat together at lunch and today he gave me a note saying that he really likes me a lot. And I think I might like him, too, you know?”

“Yeah, I can see that”, Peter smiled. “But isn't it a good thing that you both like each other?”

“But that is all so confusing! Like, do we have to date now? And are we in love then? Does that mean I have to kiss him?” Morgan's eyes were still as big as plates, but no longer out of beaming adoration; it was pure horror that was written over her features.

“You don't have to do any of that”, Peter assured her and put his arm around her shoulder. “That is the most important thing for you to know that you are allowed to say no to anything that doesn't feel right to you. You can tell Leon that you like him too, but that you don't want that much to change. I'm sure that it would be nice to sometimes hold his hand, don't you think?”

“Yeah”, she sighed and that dopey grin spread over her face again, “I would really like to hold his hand.”

“And maybe, he can be your prom date, if you want that. And maybe, only if you want that, you can give him a kiss. But that doesn't mean that you have to be in love, or that you will marry or any of that. Feelings aren't complicated, we make them complicated, because we're scared that we will get hurt, or that the other person doesn't like us, so many reasons why we get scared. But if we take a big step over that fear, those feelings aren't that difficult any more. You like him and he likes you. Does anything else matter?”

“No, not really”, she agreed after contemplating his speech. “So, I can just go to him, say that I like him too and then... Then what?”

“Then you two can be boyfriend and girlfriend if you want. Or you can just be really good friends, who sometimes hold hands, if you prefer that. But whatever you choose, it's not going to be set in stone. It's going to change, because you're getting older and you're changing, too. Maybe today you only want to be friends and then in three months you want to be his girlfriend, maybe not. I can't tell you what will happen, because I don't know your feelings. All I can tell you is that you just need to ignore the 'then what' and 'what ifs'. Because they're all bullshit – don't tell Dad I swore.”

“Promise, I won't”, she giggled. “Ok. My feelings are that I like him. And not just like I like Aisha or Thomas, I like him more than that. And I want to tell him”, she decided. “Tomorrow in school, I'll tell him.”

“Wow. That's really amazing.”

“Yeah. Can I ask you something else, though?”

“Anything, you know that.”

“Ok. So, how does love feel? Like, how would I know if I was in love? I'm not in love with Leon”, she hurried to add, “I'm just curious.”

“I mean, there are all sorts of different types of love. Like I love you, so much and I will always love you.”

“I love you, too”, she grinned up.

“That's the most awesome thing I have heard all day”, he smiled back and put a kiss on her head. “And family-love like ours is the most awesome thing. And I love Ned and Shuri and MJ, that's friend-love, like I'm sure you love your friends.”

“I do”, she nodded.

“And maybe, one day, you will have someone you love romantically. It's when you like somebody so much that being away from them hurts” - for example while being away on a mission in Nevada. “It's when their laugh is the most beautiful sound you have ever heard and all the annoying things they do, like being an annoying smarty-pants, or always making stupid jokes” - both infuriatingly attractive habits of a certain someone - “you still really like it about them and even miss it, when it's not there. It's when they get something right, like a good grade” - or finally finding the bug in their programming - “you are so happy for them as if you just won a gold medal yourself.”

“That sounds like Mum and Dad, when they're being all sappy”, Morgan remarked, pulling a face of almost disgust.

“Exactly”, he nodded, “when you love someone that way, you want to be sappy with them, make corny jokes that nobody else finds funny” - like when you call each other parasite and cockroach - “and you don't mind who knows it. Mum and Dad aren't embarrassed by their stupid twelve-percent-jokes, because they love each other so much it doesn't matter that we don't like it.”

“Hm.” Morgan did that adorable thing where she creased her eyebrows, thinking hard about what Peter had just described to her. “One more question.”

“Shoot.”

“Are you and Harley in love then?”

“Uhm, what?”

“You heard me.” By the expectant look, she was not in the mood for Peter to scramble until he found a somewhat satisfying lie, or at least half-truth that would quickly and painlessly end this questioning. Nothing but the truth would stand. “You always laugh about stupid jokes that nobody else finds funny. You're always happy when he is happy and while you were in Nevada, it really seemed to hurt Harley.”

“Good summary”, Peter shrugged and, after a sigh, settled for the truth. “Now you gotta promise that you won't tell anyone.”

“I do.”

“Cool. Ok, yeah. I think I'm in love with Harley.” After basically describing his and Harley's relationship as what it is like to be in love, it really shouldn't come as such of a shock to Peter as it did, now that he had voiced it out loud.

“So why are you not a couple then?”

“Because it's complicated.”

“You just said that complicated is bullshit and that only the feelings matter.” Wow, Morgan really wasn't about to give Peter an easy out.

“The feelings aren't complicated, the circumstances are”, he explained. “Because of what happened with Harry, there is not just love there, you know? There is pain and hurt that isn't because of the love, but it could be bad for the love. It's like when you had a barbecue and put out the fire. You have to make sure that all the fire is out, because even a tiny spark can burn down everything. So until we know that every last spark is extinguished, we keep our distance.”

“Ok, but if I understood you correctly, being apart hurts when you're in love. Aren't you and Harley just putting more wood on the fire instead of putting it out by staying away from each other?”

“Uhhh...” Oh damn. “I honestly never looked at it like that.”

“Of course you didn't. I'm the smart one, remember?”

“Yeah”, he laughed. “It's a good point, I'll think about it.”

“Not good enough”, she decided, got up and stared Peter down, giving him no room to escape. “Tomorrow I will tell Leon that I like him. And you will tell Harley that you love him, so when I come home from school we will both have a boyfriend. Deal?” She held her hand out to Peter. “No bullshit, just feelings.”

Oh, what the hell. “No bullshit”, he nodded and shook her outstretched hand. “Just feelings.”


	18. Chapter 18

“Yo, Parker?” Harley walked out on the roof, waving at Peter, perched right on the balustrade. “FRI said to come up here. So, what's up?” He sat up right next to Peter, so damn close, Peter could not only hear but almost feel Harley's heartbeat.

Well, here goes nothing. “I love you.”

“Uhm, what now?” Harley's jaw dropped as he only stared at Peter, who immediately dreaded what he had just done. The sucky feeling in his stomach was right; taking a twelve-year-olds advice when it came to relationships had been the worst fucking idea. “You... you love me?”

It was already out there, lying wouldn't help anything. “I do. And I probably have for a while, I don't know, it just became clear to me. And I know that we've been keeping a certain distance because of everything that has happened but staying away from you is starting to hurt more than the bullshit we've endured the last months and if we really want to move forward, then we should be honest with each other and the honest truth is that I love you and that...”

Peter was interrupted by Harley cupping his cheeks and pulling Peter in. And before he knew it their lips met. Now it was Peter who was caught in the dumbfound shock, but Harley, wrapping an arm around him was quite good to get him back to the here and now, where he wrapped his own arms around Harley's shoulders and kissed him back.

Yes, this was the exact kind of love, Peter had been talking about yesterday. He wanted it all; the pain when Harley was away, the butterflies in his stomach when Harley laughed, he wanted Harley's stupid jokes and smug attitude, he wanted the feeling of pure unbridled joy when Harley succeeded in his endeavours; he wanted to be sappy with Harley, no matter who saw it.

“I love you, too”, Harley eventually mumbled against Peter's lips and those few words were so amazing, Peter could just backflip off the compound. But then he'd have to stop kissing Harley, which he definitely did not want to do.

“Awesome”, Peter giggled, infecting Harley and soon enough that whole kissing-business was close to impossible thanks to all the smiling.

It was a wonderful way to let the time pass, just sitting entangled on the roof, laughing, kissing, giggling, kissing some more, holding hands and relishing in the possibilities of all this. It was all just right; there was no bullshit, there were only feelings. And it was wonderful.

What was almost as wonderful was seeing Morgan skipping into the penthouse later that afternoon smiling from ear to ear. A small gesture towards her room was enough for Peter to follow her there.

“And?”, he asked all expectantly.

“I talked to Leon, and I told him that I like him, and then he was really happy and asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend and I said yes and he was fine with not kissing me, well, he did put a kiss on my cheek, that was really nice, and then we held hands and it's so nice to hold his hand!”, she squealed.

“That's so great!”, Peter squealed along. “I told you it would be good.”

“It was, it IS!”, she beamed. “So, how about you?”

Even if he wanted to, Peter could do nothing against the lovestruck smile. “I told Harley that I love him.”

“And then?”

“And then he kissed me and said that he loves me too and now he is my boyfriend!” With every word, Peter's voice pitched higher and higher, but he couldn't help it, he was just too excited!

“I told you!”, Morgan giggled and wrapped herself around him. “I told you we would both have a boyfriend now!”

“And it's so fantastic! There's just one problem.”

“What?”

“We gotta tell Mum, Dad and Aunt May.”

“Let's do it now.” Apparently nothing could destroy her giddy excitement today.

“Ok, Harley just has to be cool with it”, Peter shrugged, deciding that he too would let nothing break down his optimistic spirit, not today.

“Come on!”, she squealed, grabbed Peter's hand and all but dragged him into the living room, where Tony, Pepper and Harley were sitting, looking at the two expectantly.

“We have some news”, Morgan beamed around the room.

“Figured. You've been conspiring ever since your secret rendezvous yesterday”, Tony commented, looking both curious and worried about their confession.

“Harley also has news”, Peter grinned meekly at his boyfriend, who's expression first turned confused, then anxious, then a smile broke out.

“Yeah, I do”, he smiled along and made his way to Peter.

“On three say I have a boyfriend”, he whispered into Harley's ear, so he couldn't ruin the surprise of all three having the exact same news.

“Ready? One, two, three.”

“I have a boyfriend”, all three announced in unison and all the colour drained from Tony's face.

“Wait, you do, too?”, Harley cried out looking at Morgan who had the biggest heart-eyes.

“His name is Leon, and he really likes me and I really like him and now he is my boyfriend”, she explained with the widest smile.

“That's lovely, honey”, Pepper smiled, while Tony was looking dangerously close to a heart-attack. “Peter, Harley, all I can say is that it's about time”, she chuckled.

“Yeah, I agree”, Peter nodded, lacing his fingers with Harley's.

“Dad? Are you ok?” Being the only one not anticipating Tony losing it at Morgan's revelation, she was slightly worried.

“You... You have a what now?” It wasn't more than a breathy sigh, but it seemed to be enough for Morgan.

“A boyfriend!”, she beamed. “He's in my class and he's really smart, and funny and he's so nice and helps everybody and we held hands all through break!”

“Wow, he sounds like a wonderful young man.” Pepper took the entire 'my daughter has a boyfriend thing' a lot better than Tony, who still looked like Morgan had just announced she was going to drop out of school and join a circus. “How about you invite Leon over for dinner some time? I would love to get to know him, and I'm sure so does your father.” She nudged Tony's side, who slowly but surely came out of his shock.

“Uhm yeah, get to know him. Leon. Your boyfriend. Yes.”

“He's so eloquent”, Harley chuckled, dropped on the couch and pulled Peter on his lap. “You can just see the genius oozing out of every crevice.”

“Is that a burn about his wrinkles?”, Peter giggled and put his arm around Harley's torso.

“It's a double-burn.”

“Not bad.”

“And you are...”, Tony turned to the boyfriends, not really getting out much more than just now.

“In love”, they answered in unison.

“Aww”, Peter cooed.

“Yeah”, Harley grinned and that dopey smile was just about the most adorable thing.

“Ok.” Tony did look everything but ok, but resignation was probably a safe choice to make right now.

“Oh, it's so much more than ok”, Peter smiled and kissed Harley on the cheek. “It's sappy.”


	19. Chapter 19

“Hah! Taste my dust!”, Peter cried out, as the finish line came into view, with him being just enough in the lead that Harley was not going to be able to catch up with him.

“Oh, just you wait and see... Blue shell in three...”

“Oh, don't you dare.”

“Two.”

“Harley, stop.”

“ONE!”

“You fucking parasite!”, Peter cried out, with his car doing circles as Harley overtook him and crossed the finish line that had been no more than two metres in front of Peter, thusly kicking Peter out of the semifinals of this months Mario Cart Tournament.

“Come on, Peter”, Tony groaned, “you've been dating for months, and you still call him parasite?”

“Mr Stark, you and Pepper have been married for thirteen years and you still make twelve-percent-jokes”, he shot back. “Besides, as long as his ringtone for me is the cuccaracha song, I'll call him parasite, thank you very much.”

“And it's the most romantic thing anyone has ever called me”, Harley beamed at him.

“Don't even try being sweet, you're not getting anywhere near my bed tonight, not after what you pulled just now”, Peter made clear and dropped on the couch between Tony, who was eliminated first round, and Nat, who had lost the quarter-finals against Pepper.

“Relax, kid. Rhodey kicked me out, and he's still welcome in my bed”, Tony smiled and winked at Rhodey.

“Is that instead of Pepper, or in the gap between you two?”

“Whatever my honeybear wants!”

“If I didn't know you like I did, I would assume that your honeybear is your wife”, Nat chuckled.

“That's alright”, Pepper smiled, “there's more than enough Tony for two.”

“Are you calling me fat?”

As Tony started fake-sobbing about how the one person who was supposed to support him unconditionally would make such comments about his figure, Peter turned his attention back towards his boyfriend, on a chair just opposite him, shooting him that damn smirk that just roped Peter in every time.

Man, who would have thought that the parasite, Peter just wanted to get rid of was now, only a year later, the one parasite Peter never would want to miss again?


End file.
